Arrogate now third-highest earner in racing
Arrogate’s sensational victory in the $10m Dubai World Cup has taken him into third place in earnings in the history of thoroughbred racing.
The winner’s cheque in the United Arab Emirates took the four-year-old’s lifetime earnings to more than $17m and he is now the highest-earning North American-bred thoroughbred. Worldwide, he is in third place behind Orfevre ($19m) and Gentildonna ($18.4m).
After Arrogate fluffed the start of Saturday’s night race, giving his rivals a valuable start, bookies must have felt they had a chance of beating the 1-3 favourite. That was certainly the belief of the horse’s trainer, Bob Baffert, who admitted Arrogate looked an unlikely winner halfway through the race at the Meydan track.
“Mike [jockey, Mike Smith] did a great job, he didn’t panic. When he turned for home, I said: ‘If he wins from there he’s the greatest since Secretariat’,” Baffert said after the race.
Arrogate races in the colours of Juddmonte Farms, who also own the unbeaten Frankel.
Top South African trainer Mike de Kock, who saddled Mubtaahij to finish second in the 2016 Dubai World Cup, saddled the same horse and finished a creditable fourth.
Writing on the stable’s website, De Kock praised Baffert for a great training job, adding “we are privileged to have a horse in a contest with Arrogate”.
Prior to the Dubai race, De Kock said he would consider sending Mubtaahij to compete in Hong Kong in April if he came through the World Cup in good fettle. A decision on that plan is expected this week.
While De Kock was doing battle in Dubai, his son, Mathew, kept the stable on the boil at Turffontein, winning three races, including the 2,000m Oaks Trial with three-year-old filly Belle Rose.
This R150,000 race produced a nail-biting finish between up-and-coming young rider Callun Murray and former champion Anthony Delpech on Joe Soma’s badly drawn filly Wind Chill.
Murray came out on top and will be hoping there is an “action replay” next Saturday when he partners the De Kock-trained Heavenly Blue in the SA Classic.
In this race, Delpech again poses the biggest threat on Sean Tarry’s Gauteng Guineas runner-up, Al Salem.
The Classic, a R2m race which has attracted only 10 runners, looks a straight match between the stables of Tarry and De Kock, which will both saddle three runners.
Jockey Gavin Lerena was back in hot form at Turffontein last Saturday riding three feature-race winners and he will be keen to add to his seasonal tally at the Vaal on Tuesday.
Lerena has prospects of landing a double on Clinton Binda’s one-eyed sprinter Al Azraq in the second race and Scott Kenny’s runner Don Christo in the final leg of the jackpot.