Dubai Millennium became a serious candidate to win next year's Dubai World Cup after he pulverised four French rivals with a stylish front running display to land the Group 1 Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois in driving rain at Deauville yesterday.

It was jockey Frankie Dettori's 201st Group race winner and Godolphin's 11th Group 1 victory of the year. Dettori burst the second favourite out of the stalls and the combination never looked seriously threatened to beat Slickly by two and a half lengths with the favourite Dansili a length back in third.

Impressive though the winner was the race had lost some of its glamour with the non-appearance of Sendawar, France's star miler. A downpour late on Saturday had finally persuaded connections against running.

However, Dettori was in little doubt about the quality of his mount.

He said: "This horse is a champion. I didn't want to go slowly early on because if you make it a good test a champion will come through."

Godolphin's racing manager Simon Crisford, confirming that Dubai Millennium would be targeted towards the Dubai World Cup, said of yesterday's race: "We had weighed up all the issues and at this stage of his career decided that the Jacques Le Marois was the right race to go for."