Trump’s Chinese takeaway
Jack hits back
The red-hot favourite had to show courage as well as class to win at Meydan.
Sent off at long odds-on – 1-3 – after wins in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Pegasus World Cup Invitational, Bob Baffert’s four-year-old appeared to have lost all chance with a slow start.
But jockey Mike Smith showed all his experience and did not panic, weaving in and out of the field as he gradually made up ground.
Rounding the turn for home he was making up lengths but Gun Runner – 7-1 – looked to have stolen a march.
However, Arrogate found another gear and gave Baffert a third race win.
Gun Runner held on for second ahead of Neolithic – 25-1.
Baffert said: “When he missed the break, I gave him no chance at all. I was so mad at myself thinking I shouldn’t have brought him.
“But that’s the greatest horse I’ve ever seen run, it’s unbelievable. I can’t believe he won. That is a great horse.
“Mike did a great job, he didn’t panic.”
Smith said: “I missed the break completely as he is used to having a man in the gate with him, but things happen for a reason and thank the Lord we got the job done.” LIGHTLY RACED 2015 Irish Derby winner Jack Hobbs returned from the relative wilderness to deliver a devastating victory in rain-softened ground as he took the Dubai Sheema Classic, one of the most valuable races anywhere in the world. Pulled-up with a stress fracture to his pelvis on his reappearance at the Craven meeting last year, he only appeared once again in 2016, finishing third to Almanzor in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot. But John Gosden came into this contest hopeful that he had got the flame burning again in the five-year-old and Jack Hobbs dispatched some smart rivals with ease. Cruising turning for home, William Buick’s cut between rivals over a furlong out and stretched away from Seventh Heaven in second and third-placed Postponed, kept wide throughout in search of less-poached ground. HECTOR NUNNS JUDD TRUMP is chasing a third China Open title this week as the perfect warm-up for next month’s World Championship.
World No.2 Trump, 27, is the defending champion in Beijing and heads east fresh from recent success at the Players’ Championship.
The £500,000 event was also Trump’s springboard into the big time in 2011, when he followed it up by reaching his only Crucible final.
Heading to Sheffield for snooker’s biggest event, which begins on April 15, the Juddernaut is right up there among the favourites to win a first world title.
Trump (below) has been in five tour finals this season and hopes to keep his hot streak going and cement a growing reputation as the man to beat. The Englishman opens up against Jason Weston and said: “I have a good record in China and I always fancy it when I go. “I am playing consistently well at the moment so I am just hoping to play some decent stuff in Beijing in preparation for the World Championship.
“It was a big moment for me to lift the trophy again last year, the first time I have won a tournament twice.
“That was a new experience and I think it takes you to a new level.”