The 28th Dubai World Cup brings together runners from 14 countries and 33 individual Group One race winners to compete for nearly £25million at the most cosmopolitan meeting on the calendar.
Racing Editor MARCUS TOWNEND is there and marks your card for Saturday’s scintillating show at Meydan…
DETTORI AND THE GOOD LORD
Frankie Dettori playing a part in racing history, a phrase which looked like it would never be used again until the 53-year-old made a U-turn on his retirement plan and headed out to California.
Dettori will try to make Lord North, trained by old boss John Gosden and his son Thady, the first horse to win thoroughbred races at the World Cup meeting four times.
The pair won the Dubai Turf in 2021, dead-heated for first in 2022 and won it outright again last year with a three-quarter length win from Danon Beluga who he faces again.
Frankie Dettori is the most successful jockey ever at Dubai World Cup meeting with 23 wins
Two other thoroughbreds have won three World Cup day races — French stayer Vazirabad claiming the Dubai Gold Cup between 2016 and 2018 and Thunder Snow adding two World Cups (2018 & 2019) to his 2017 UAE Derby victory.
Lord North has run once since last year’s race, finishing second in the Winter Derby at Southwell. Thady Gosden said: ‘The race has brought him on a lot and has sharpened him up.’
Dettori, the most successful jockey ever at the meeting with 23 wins, has a solid chance on Star Of Mystery in the Al Quoz Sprint, while he chases a record fifth World Cup on Newgate.
FERGIE TIME AGAIN
Sir Alex Ferguson has enjoyed a remarkable racing winter. He won his first races at the Cheltenham Festival thanks to Monmiral (Pertemps Hurdle) and Protektorat (Ryanair Chase), while Spirit Dancer, the gelding he also bred, has taken his form to new highs with wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
The Richard Fahey-trained seven-year-old faces his stiffest task yet in the Sheema Classic. If he wins he gets £2.7m but even if he can only finish eighth, he will get almost £50,000.
Fahey said: ‘He looks fantastic and has acclimatised well. He is primed to the minute. If we are going to take these good horses on, this is the time to do it.’
Lord North will be reunited with Dettori in search of a fourth straight victory in the Dubai Turf
WHERE IS KAZAKHSTAN?
The question asked on a regular round of the popular TV quiz show Richard Osman’s House of Games may be a phrase being uttered if Kabirkhan wins the £9.5m World Cup.
The son of 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome, who only cost £9,500, has made the unlikely journey from a debut win at a ramshackle, puddle-strewn dirt track in Almaty to Dubai via Russia, where he suffered his only career defeat in the country’s Derby.
He goes into one of the world’s most valuable races the 4-1 third favourite. British-based jockey Pat Dobbs will ride the colt who gave him the second Group One win of his career when he easily secured the Al Maktoum Challenge here in January.
His trainer Doug Watson said: ‘Pat came back after his second-to-last piece of work and said he could compete in the Sprint or the Mile. I don’t think I’d trade him for anything.’
FAR OUT EAST
Japan had three winners last year, Derma Sotogake (UAE Derby), Ushba Tesoro (World Cup) and the brilliant Equinox in the Sheema Classic, and they have a strong hand again. Both Derma Sotogake and Ushba Tesoro are back as part of a powerful 22-runner Japanese contingent which includes 2022 Sheema Classic winner Shahryar. She seems a forgotten horse at 25-1 considering she was an unlucky third to Auguste Rodin in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in November.
While Justin Palace has been looking in great shape, the real buzz surrounds Liberty Island. She landed last year’s Japanese 1,000 Guineas and Oaks and her only defeat in nine starts came at the hands of Equinox in the Japan Cup.
Racecourse representatives are out here trying to lure Japanese runners, but particularly Liberty Island, to Britain this summer.
Her jockey Yuga Kawada said: ‘I hope she can show fans all over the world how good she is.’
Former Man United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has had a glorious winter on the racecourse
AUGUSTE OCCASION
The decision to keep Auguste Rodin in training will be tested for the first time in the Sheema Classic. Having won the English and Irish Derbys last season, along with the Irish Champion Stakes, it seemed likely the colt would be shipped off for a lucrative stud career. But he is back and while today’s race is on turf, trainer Aidan O’Brien has plans to take on America’s top Dirt track horses in their own back yard this year.
WINNER STAYS ON?
Five winners from last year are back again — Isolate (Godolphin Mile), Danyah (Al Quoz Sprint), Sibelius (Golden Shaheen), Lord North (Dubai Turf) plus Ushba Tesoro in the Classic.
The latter has won eight of his 11 starts since switching from Turf to Dirt tracks two years ago and pulled off a dramatic victory last year when detached early before pouncing late on.
He ran a similar race when second to Senor Buscador in last month’s furlong shorter Saudi Cup. The third in that race, US-representative Saudi Crown, is a strong fancy dropping back in distance for the Godolphin Mile.
BRITISH STAYING POWER
Eight European winners in the past 10 years shows the two-mile Dubai Gold Cup is our best hope of a victor on the card. O’Brien’s Tower of London, who beat Enemy and Giavellotto — both of whom re-oppose — in Saudi Arabia last month, is favourite but Roger Varian’s Eldar Eldarov, has been looking good on the Meydan training track.
He has never won beyond an extended 1m 6f but Varian believes the two miles on the flat Meydan circuit should be within his scope.
He said: ‘After the Irish Leger we decided we wouldn’t run deep into the autumn on heavy ground. Instead we planned to give him a good break for this race. He has achieved a good amount but his pedigree suggests he’ll be better with age.’
Spirit Dancer and Oisin Orr win the lucrative Neom Cup in Saudi Arabia last month
HE’S A SHOE-IN
Despite Dettori being here and getting the ride on Lord North, old boss John Gosden has handed the rides on Emily Upjohn (Sheema Classic) and Trawlerman (Dubai Gold Cup) to Kieran Shoemark, a clear vote of confidence in the 28-year-old who has quietly been eased into position without officially being announced as the main rider for the stable’s horses who don’t represent owners with their own retained jockeys.
HOT FROST
Frost At Dawn has been one of the success stories of the winter here, obliterating the five- furlong track record on her last run when grabbing the inside rail. Trainer William Knight will be hoping that works again with his filly drawn against the fence for the Al Quoz Sprint.
