Horses from Britain, France, South Africa and the US will oppose a five-strong domestic team of runners in the US$10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan racecourse today.
The world’s richest race, which is run over 2,000m, has proved a magnet for some of the finest thoroughbreds in the US.
Dual Eclipse Award winner Royal Delta fronts a challenge that also embraces 2011 Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom and multiple Grade 1 winner Dullahan, the latter from US champion trainer Dale Romans’ stable, but their collective potency at home may be diluted by the synthetic Tapeta surface over which the race in Dubai will unfold.
Photo: EPA
Royal Delta returns for a second tilt at a race she contested last year, although the five-year-old mare met severe traffic when running and could never express herself.
As a consequence her connections remain in the dark over whether the artificial surface is to the champion mare’s liking.
Nevertheless, Royal Delta’s trainer, Bill Mott, is encouraged by what he has seen in the buildup.
“She is doing very well, having traveled over very well,” said Mott, who won the inaugural Dubai World Cup with Cigar in 1996. “I also feel the surface is a bit faster this year. It was more oily last year, but my horse seems to be moving extremely well over it this time.”
Animal Kingdom has been in high spirits on the training track since arriving in Dubai. However, the five-year-old’s prospects were compromised when he was allocated post position 12 in the 13-runner field. Only one horse won from post position 11 or higher in 69 races run at Tapeta at the recent Dubai Winter Carnival.
The home team of five emanate from two stables — those of Mahmood Al Zarooni and Saeed Bin Suroor, both of whom train almost exclusively for the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
Al Zarooni won the World Cup 12 months ago with Monterosso, who lines up once again, although the horse has since failed to advance on that achievement. The trainer also fields Capponi, last year’s runner-up, but absent from the racetrack since. French pilot Mikael Barzalona renews his partnership with Monterosso, while Emirati jockey Ahmed Ajtebi is aboard Capponi.
Bin Suroor’s three include Hunter’s Light, who disputes favoritism with Royal Delta and who dismissed stablemate Kassiano — another World Cup runner from the Bin Suroor stable — over the Meydan course three weeks ago.
The trainer’s third runner, African Story, is highly talented, but has never previously raced over 2,000m.
Britain’s best chance of taking home the US$6 million winner’s prize appears to rest with Planteur, who finished third in last year’s Dubai World Cup. Neither Red Cadeaux nor Side Glance, who complete Britain’s challenge, have yet shown the requisite level of ability to win such a competitive race.
The French challenger, Meandre, has been equally devoid of high achievement since winning the 2011 Grand Prix de Paris, while Treasure Beach, representing South Africa, has been sparingly raced of late.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
Switzerland’s Riola Xhemaili on Thursday scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a dramatic 1-1 draw with Finland that sent the joyous hosts through to the quarter-finals at Euro 2025, and heartbroken Finland home. Switzerland, who needed only a draw to advance based on goal-difference, finished second in Group A behind Norway to go through to the knockout round for the first time and are to face the winners of Group B, which would be world champions Spain as things stand. “I think we set ourselves a goal on the pitch, to write history, to go into the knockout stages, which we’ve never
RSS