African Story swooped on front-running Mukhadram to win the 19th renewal of the $US10 million Dubai World Cup, in the process breaking the track record with his winning time of 2min 01.61 sec.

Tracking front-running Mukhadram throughout, winning jockey Silvestre De Sousa asked African Story for his effort with 400 metres left and eventually won a protracted battle.

He pulled two and three-quarter lengths ahead of Mukhadram, with Cat O'Mountain a further four and a quarter lengths adrift in third place.

It was a sixth victory in the world's richest race for Saeed Bin Suroor, who trains African Story for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Seven countries were represented but the result was a clean sweep for the ruling Al Maktoum family of Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammed also owns Cat O'Mountain, while his brother, Sheikh Hamdan, owns the runner-up.

"It is a dream come true," said De Sousa, the Brazilian who was winning the world's richest race for the first time.

"This is a team effort, and we did it. We had a bit of bad luck earlier in the evening but this has saved the night."

African Story's victory earned his connections $US6 million ($A6.50 million).

He finished fifth in last year's Dubai World Cup and is seen as a specialist on the synthetic surface on which the race was run.

Military Attack, from Hong Kong, and Ruler Of The World, from Ireland, were both expected to feature prominently but could finish only eighth and twelfth respectively.

The South African runner, Sanshaawes, reared up and caught a front foot in the gates of the stalls before the race started.

He was inspected by on-site veterinarians, who cleared him to run, but he could finish no better than seventh.