De Kock lights up Meydan with his first 2018 Carnival win
– Light The Lights provided Mike de Kock with his first win of the 2018 Dubai World Cup Carnival when he triumphed over a high-class field at Meydan on Thursday last week.
Making his second appearance of the carnival, Light The Lights accelerated impressively to win the Mubadala Global Trophy over 2000m.
Ridden by record-breaking champion jockey Christophe Soumillon, the six-year-old gelded son of Western Winter ran on smartly to score a neck win – despite conceding runner up Blair House no less than 5kgs.
After the win Soumillon commented: “Mike is a very good trainer, as we all know, and would not be running this horse back after just a week if he was not happy
Dubai
he could produce a run like that.
“He needed that comeback run and I was always pretty happy, but Blair House came there going very strongly so we had to fight.
“This is not a horse who wants to be in front too long, so I was happy to have a rival and a battle because that suits him.
“He should build on this and go back up in class.”
De Kock said: “This win proves again that the South African thoroughbred can hold its own on the world stage.
“Light The Lights ran to his 111 rating, gave the runner-up 10 pounds (5kg) and beat him, a remarkable win.”
Racing in the famed yellow and blue silks of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, Light The Lights has now twice in Dubai, having captured the Listed Singspiel Stakes at Meydan last year.
This son of triple champion sire Western Winter won three times in South Africa, including the Grade 2 Peninsula Handicap and finished fourth in the 2016 Met.
Light The Lights, whose halfbrother Pack Leader is set to contest the 2018 Grade 1 Investec Cape Derby this weekend, was a R450,000 buy from the 2013 National Yearling Sale.
A Silvano half-sister to Light The Lights has been entered for the 2018 National Yearling Sale.
De Kock had four runners at Meydan on Saturday and Alareef did best running second to Pirate’s Cove in a 1200m dirt handicap. –