One of the striking aspects about the Dubai World Cup Carnival is the sheer variety of nationalities that it continues to draw year after a year, be it owners, horses or trainers.

At this week鈥檚 sixth meeting, there will be horses trained in the UK, US, UAE, Turkey, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Ireland and Australia clashing across the six races. The quality of the racing in these jurisdictions varies hugely, however.

Australia, for example, has excellent prize money and some of the best racing in the world, while Greece is currently experiencing some tough times, so much so that their 10-time champion trainer, Christos Theodorakis, is forced to run his horses overseas.

He saddles Ahatis in the opening dirt handicap at Meydan on Friday. The winner of five of his six starts, the four-year-old nevertheless faces a difficult challenge.

鈥淎hatis is a good horse, but up until now he has been winning three-year-old only races,鈥� said Theodorakis. 鈥淲e know that racing here is of a much higher level (than Greece) but we鈥檙e here to fight and to try, and if we can place then that would be great.鈥�

Simply by being in Dubai, the trainer is shining the spotlight on racing in his home country, which is never a bad thing.

鈥淲e have great facilities in Greece and the weather is perfect for racing all year round, but the state hasn鈥檛 invested in the track, which is a shame,鈥� he said.

Coming from a much more buoyant racing nation is Adelaide-based trainer Will Clarken, who will send out He鈥檚 A Balter and Parsifal in the G2 Blue Point Sprint, race four.

鈥淭his is a big target race for both of them,鈥� said the Group 1-winning handler. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very hard to try and decide between them.鈥�

Despite plenty of success during only five years of 鈥渢aking training seriously,鈥� Clarken says that traveling horses overseas is something he has always wanted to do.

鈥淲e鈥檝e traveled horses extensively around Australia with mixed success,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hese two horses are perfect for this as they鈥檙e older horses who often get weighted out of races at home and they鈥檙e not quite good enough for the Melbourne sprints.

鈥淭his trip has been quite an eye-opener and maybe in the future we鈥檇 look to use it to bring horses here from Europe and then take them on to Australia.鈥�

So now he has the taste for travel, how about a trip to racing鈥檚 annual garden party, Royal Ascot?

鈥淚f I had one good enough then I鈥檇 be there in a heartbeat,鈥� he said.

Maybe one day the Greeks will make it too.