McClaren will have been perturbed to see the synthetic surface being heavily watered before kick-off, a move clearly designed to make conditions more favourable for Hiddink's side.

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Animal Kingdom, the 2011 Derby winner, and two-time Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic winner Royal Delta, along with Dullahan, will attempt to give American-based horses their first World Cup win since 2010, when the track was changed from dirt to a synthetic surface.

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Starting his racing campaign a little later than his stablemate, Animal Kingdom was second by a head in a turf race in early March, an effort that sent him north to the Grade 3 Vinery Spiral over the synthetic surface at Turfway Park in Kentucky.

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It is made from a blend of crushed rock, rubber and polyurethane, a synthetic plastic that replaces bitumen as the binding agent and allows even bigger pores in the road surface.

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