The new Cigar: is Life Is Good ready to become America's (and China's) horse?

When the Dubai World Cup was first conceived, its organisers could not have dreamed of a more emblematic horse to carry off the trophy on opening night in 1996 than Cigar, known by the end of his career simply as "America's horse".

In the intervening 26 years the race has undergone myriad changes while the industry in the United States that produced Cigar is going through one of its periodic identity crises with the public at large.

Having enjoyed record exposure on mainstream television through the first year of the pandemic, US racing has been in the eye of the storm thanks to a high-profile FBI investigation into doping and the trail of litigation that has followed Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert in the wake of the positive test and subsequent disqualification of his Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit.