Prince Of Arran among international acceptors for World Cup Carnival

Melbourne Cup runner-up Prince Of Arran and Group 1 winners Defoe, Desert Encounter, Suedois and Zabeel Prince feature among the international stars to have been accepted for this season's Dubai World Cup Carnival.

The ten-meeting carnival begins on January 2 and concludes with Super Saturday on March 7, with the Dubai World Cup meeting on March 28.

There is a strong British contingent of entries with Simon Crisford, Richard Hannon and Roger Varian also among the trainers with runners.

Ciaron Maher and Chris Waller have entered large teams from Australia, with runners also potentially jetting in from France, Ireland, Sweden and the US. A total of 237 horses have been accepted from 76 trainers spread between 16 countries.

There are also some programme changes for this year's carnival including a prize-money increase of $50,000 for the Group 2 Dubai City of Gold on Super Saturday to $350,000.

The Group 3 Singspiel Stakes, which has been won for the last two years by Saeed bin Suroor, is now a Group 2, while six turf handicaps have been upgraded to Listed status.

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