Two stakes kick off carnival

The Dubai World Cup Carnival season at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates begins on Thursday with a six-race program highlighted by two Group 3 races worth $200,000 each.

The 10-program carnival season continues on Thursdays through the end of February, leading to an all-stakes card on March 9 comprising prep races for the Dubai World Cup program on March 30, which has eight stakes for Thoroughbreds worth a combined $34 million.

The highlight of the March 30 program is the $12 million Dubai World Cup, which is expected to have widespread American participation along with several other stakes that day.

Each of the Thursday cards through January and February has at least one group stakes that could produce starters for the Dubai World Cup program.

On Thursday, Deauville will start as part of a field of 16 in the Group 3 Singspiel Stakes at about 1 1/8 miles on turf. The race is a prep for the Group 1 Dubai Turf, a $6 million race at about 1 1/8 miles on March 30.

A 6-year-old in 2019 who has run in six countries in the last two years, Deauville was recently transferred to trainer Fawzi Abdulla Nass, and is owned by a group called Victorious. Luke Morris will ride Deauville for the first time. Deauville was previously trained by Aidan O’Brien.

Deauville was sixth in the Grade 1 Arlington Million last August. He was later third to Roaring Lion in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in what would be his final start for O’Brien.

The Singspiel field also includes Settle For Bay, who won the 30-runner Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot in England last June; Salsabeel, who was second in a Group 3 at a mile at Deauville, France, last August; and Degas, a multiple group stakes winner in Germany last year.

Thursday’s Group 3 Dubawi Stakes at about six furlongs on the infield dirt track has not drawn a particularly strong field of seven.

Drafted, a Florida-bred gelding who began his career in California with trainer Eoin Harty, won the $72,200 Garhoud Sprint at about six furlongs at Meydan on Dec. 6 in his first start since March.

Drafted started three times for Harty as a 2-year-old in 2016. He won a maiden special weight race at Keeneland, finished 17th in the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, and was sixth in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar in August of that year.

In the Dubawi Stakes, Drafted’s main rival is My Catch, a Doug Watson-trained runner who has not started since he finished last of eight in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen Sprint last March behind the American-trained Mind Your Biscuits. My Catch won the Group 3 Al Shindagha Stakes at Meydan last February and was fourth in the Dubawi Stakes last January.