Five United States horses in fray for Dubai World Cup
dubai — The Americans are back in full force. Fifteen horses were en route to Dubai to compete in the 23rd renewal of the Dubai World Cup, the richest night in horse racing, with five of them set to take the gates for the $10 million race on March 31.
The Dubai Racing Club announced the likely fields for all the nine races on Wednesday and the Group 1 contest run across 10 furlongs, and on dirt, includes two runners from illustrious American trainer Bob Baffert.
Baffert, looking for a second win on the trot after Arrogate won in fairytale fashion last time out, and his fourth after Silver Charm (1998) and Captain Steve (2001), has West Coast and Mubtaahij in the fray.
West Coast is one of the favourites, having won the Travers Stakes, Pennsylvania Derby and the Los Alamitos Derby last year, under Mike Smith. The colt from Flatter, had also finished third in Breeders’ Cup Classic and second in the Pegasus World Cup. West Coast is likely to be the mount of Javier Castellano, who rode him at the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The other American contenders in the race are Forever Unbridled, Gunnevera and Pavel. Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic, trained by Andre Fabre, is also in the fray.
Three horses — Japanese trainer Mikio Matsunaga’s Awardee, Erwan Charpy’s Furia Cruzada and Mubtaahij will be running for the second time. Mubtaahij, then trained by Mike de Kock, had finished fourth, while Awardee was fifth. Furia Cruzada had finished way down in 13th.
The UAE have strong contenders in North America, saddled by Satish Seemar and Thunder Snow, trained by ace Emirati Saeed bin Suroor.
Thunder Snow and North America had won the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 and Round 3 respectively during the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
Thunder Snow had won the Group 2 UAE Derby on Dubai World Cup night last year.
Meanwhile, Mind Your Biscuits, trained by Chad Summers, is back to defend his Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen title and so is Vivlos, who will defend the Group 1 Dubai Turf.