SIR Alex Ferguson couldn’t stop smirking when revealing he is ‘quietly confident’ of landing a whopping £2.7million payday.

The Manchester United legend is gunning for the biggest win of his career as a horse owner in Dubai on Saturday afternoon.

Sir Alex will be hoping Spirit Dancer can land him a seven-figure payday in DubaiCredit: PA
Sir Alex has already won just shy of £1.5m from Spirit Dancer’s last two wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia respectively.

But victory in the Dubai Sheema Classic at 4pm on Saturday will send the seven-year-old gelding’s earnings through the roof.

The 1m4f turf race is one of the richest in the world and Spirit Dancer, who is trained by Richard Fahey, goes there in exceptional form.

Some of the others, including former Derby hero Auguste Rodin, are making their seasonal return.

So there’s a chance they could be a little rusty while Spirit Dancer lines up hot on the heels of his £945,000 success in Riyadh last month.

And, despite his horse drifting to 22-1, Sir Alex reckons they have a chance of defying the odds.

He said: “We’re quietly confident. In fairness, Richard has said all along that he thinks he’s a mile and a half horse.

“His Frankel pedigree suggests he should be able to cope with it, so we’re hopeful in that respect, but we don’t know.

“It’s an honour to have a horse in a race of this magnitude that you’ve bred yourself.

“When he won at York, Richard told us we were going to Bahrain and I said ‘Bahrain! What do we want to go there for?!’

“He said there was a great race there for him, so he’s the architect and we’re not going to argue with what he’s doing.

“We’ve enjoyed it, we’ve had a few days in Bahrain, a few days in Saudi and now a week here. It’s fantastic.”