Four Roses Thoroughbreds’ Diamond Stripes and IEAH Stables Sunshine Millions Sprint winner Benny the Bull parlayed Palm Meadows training by Rick Dutrow into victories a half-world away Saturday on the Dubai World Cup (G1) undercard at Nad Al Sheba.

            Trained at the Boynton Beach Training Center, Diamond Stripes scored in the $1 million Godolphin Mile (G2) and Benny the Bull rolled to the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1), both under Gulfstream Park-based jockey Edgar Prado.

            “I can’t explain it right now,” said Dutrow after watching both races from a suite at Gulfstream, where he will saddle IEAH and Pompa’s Big Brown, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $1 million Florida Derby (G1). “I’m on cloud nine.”

            Diamond Stripes, a son of Notebook, finished fourth in the $1 million Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita on Jan. 26 over Cushion Track at 1 1/8 miles. The Saturday victory was his first since capturing the Meadowlands Cup Handicap (G2) on Oct. 5.

            “When he started coming back on the leader, I knew they were in trouble,” said Dutrow, referring to the game way Diamond Stripes surged to the lead after being headed by runner-up Elusive Warning. “When he starts coming on like that nobody is getting past him and, with no late comers, I knew they were in trouble.”

            Benny the Bull, a 5-year-old Florida-bred horse by Lucky Lionel, notched his second straight emphatic sprint victory after his score in the $300,000 Sunshine Million Sprint at Gulfstream on Jan. 26.

Benny the Bull previously closed out his 2007 campaign with a victory in the De Francis Memorial (G1) at Laurel Park. He and Prado waited for a drifting Idiot Proof to clear ahead of them before grinding to the lead in the final 100 yards of the straight six-furlong course.

            “I wasn’t sure he was going to get there with the way that horse was drifting in,” said Dutrow. “I hadn’t really thought about how tough it would be for him to close (on the straight course). He’s always been a horse who drops back. When I sat down with Edgar to talk about strategy, I didn’t know what to tell him. He said ‘Don’t worry. I know what to do.’ He did a great job.”

            Diamond Stripes could next appear in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park on May 26.

            “I think the one-turn mile was the thing that made the difference today,” said Dutrow of Diamond Stripes. “We might have been trying to push him a little farther than he wanted to go with his mile-and-an-eighth races.

“Now we have to think about the Met Mile. There aren’t too many big handicap horses in the division this year. It looks like this is his distance. They always talk about having to wait with horses coming back from Dubai, but we’ll see if the Met Mile would be about right.”

            Diamond Stripes was an occasional workmate of Big Brown at Palm Meadows.

            “Big Brown carried Diamond Stripes when they worked together,” said Dutrow. “The best is yet to come today.”

            Dutrow said there were no immediate plans for Benny the Bull.

            “We’ll let the horses dictate the pace when they get back.”