The Big Talking Points After a Stunning Dubai World Cup Night
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A special look at the top stories from thoroughbredracing.com. March 2018 The big talking points after a stunning Dubai World Cup night Also inside: A landmark year for so many top breeders? / Triple Crown winners floating down the Mississippi / It’s so much better for female riders down under /ThoroughbredRacingCommentary @TRCommentary Ten things we learned at the Meydan spectacular Michele MacDonald | April 02, 2018 Photo: Dubai Racing Club/Neville Hopwood Thunder Snow comes home unchallenged in the Dubai World Cup on the Meydan dirt. He has already won two G1s on turf (including one on very soft ground). Photo: Michele MacDonald Amid a blur of booming fireworks, high- and Coolmore’s thrilling 3-year-old Mendelssohn performed brilliantly on flying aerialists and a collision of dozens of dirt after earlier excelling on turf. They thus have marked languages and cultures, the 23rd the Dubai themselves as exceptional horses World Cup program yielded several intriguing who can achieve in international settings and hopefully will have scenarios to ponder going into the rest of the much more to give, both in racing and eventually at stud, while also season and the future at large. encouraging others to take a chances on both dirt and turf. Foremost is perhaps a return to the Both Godolphin’s Dubai World Cup Other major takeaways from the simple notion that a good horse can winner Thunder Snow — one of four world’s richest day of racing, a $30 run on anything, and there is no more winners on the night for the blue team million extravaganza held in the inspiring result than a runner proving and such a delight to Sheikh Mohammed sprawling lap of the globe’s largest himself at the highest levels on varying that he broke into a spontaneous racing temple, Meydan Racecourse, surfaces and anywhere in the world. dance during the trophy ceremony — included: TRC March 2018 / The Meydan spectacular/ A landmark year for so many top breeders? / Triple Crown winners floating down the Mississippi / It’s so much better for female riders down under / P2 Christophe Soumillon and Saeed Bin Suroor with the Dubai World Cup trophy on Saturday. They will be hoping to get their hands on another prestigious trophy at Churchill Downs in November. Photo: Michele MacDonald • The superior mastery of jockeys in last year’s Kentucky Derby as he Coast finished a neck in front of his Bob Christophe Soumillon and Ryan Moore; departed the gate bucking and had Baffert-trained stablemate Mubtaahij, • A return to center stage by Godolphin to be pulled up, left two American dirt who had finished second in the 2016 trainer Saeed bin Suroor after a champions in his wake as he barreled Dubai World Cup and was fourth in the period in which he had struggled with around the 2000m of the Dubai World race last year. not receiving the stable’s best horses; Cup unthreatened under a bold front- • The continuing impact of American- running Soumillon ride. Breeders’ Cup Classic is the bred speed on global racing; A giddy Soumillon reported that he target now • An ongoing demonstration of female was surprised not to be challenged Looking ahead, Bin Suroor reported power in mixed competition, even if early by the likes of American 3-year-old that he wants to eventually take there were no filly or mare winners on champion West Coast, and that he had Thunder Snow back to the United the night, and to keep Thunder Snow focused coming States, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic • A pronounced bias toward speed that down the stretch, knowing that the colt this autumn could be a goal. has developed on the Meydan dirt can be quirky. Just the thought of going back to track that proved difficult, although “When I came in the straight, I could Churchill Downs for that race made not impossible, to overcome. feel nobody was following me [see video Soumillon cover his face with his hands First and foremost, Thunder Snow above]. I knew I had to concentrate and laugh at the memory of the Derby and Mendelssohn undoubtedly were the because when he sees the big screen, debacle, but Thunder Snow’s ability, brightest stars of this eclectic show. he can do something sometimes,” when he chooses to employ it, is no Soumillon said, referring to the Derby laughing matter. Thunder Snow: How’s this for bucking. He has now won seven of 18 starts versatility? Thunder Snow defeated runner-up and placed seven times while banking a Thunder Snow, a two-time G1 winner West Coast by 5¾ lengths in track record sum calculated at $8,381,476 by Equibase on grass who famously pitched a fit time of 2:01.38 for the 2000m. West and at £6,302,421 by the Racing Post TRC March 2018 / The Meydan spectacular/ A landmark year for so many top breeders? / Triple Crown winners floating down the Mississippi / It’s so much better for female riders down under / P3 In a league of his own: Mendelssohn draws just further and further clearn down the stretch in the UAE Derby. Photo: Michele MacDonald based on relevant exchange rates. That son Audible won the Florida Derby hours Moore and Soumillon: Getting figure will make him 19th in the TRC list of after Mendelssohn’s tour de force. it done no matter what the highest earners in world Thoroughbred “We will look forward to going to surface racing history, putting him second only to Kentucky with him now,” said trainer Aidan Likewise, Moore and Soumillon Highland Reel among European horses. O’Brien of Mendelssohn, who earned proved yet again that they are A son of Australian-bred Helmet, by enough Kentucky Derby qualifying points unmatched riding wizards no matter Exceed and Excel, Thunder Snow is from to guarantee a spot in the starting gate the track. Together, they took home the female family of American champion for the Run for the Roses. “He is a terrific half the trophies of the Dubai World It’s In The Air and the remarkable Irish horse, really very exciting.” Cup program’s eight Thoroughbred Derby-winning filly Balanchine. A mid-May foal, Mendelssohn is well races, with Soumillon also piloting known for his whinnying while training, the Aga Khan’s Vazirabad to an Mendelssohn: ‘He’s going to get and the colt came back to the Meydan unprecedented third win in the $1 even better’ winner’s circle while loudly announcing million Dubai Gold Cup, and Moore Yet there are few individuals that his arrival. O’Brien has described him as also steering home Heavy Metal to can match the pedigree excellence still “babyish” but jockey Moore said he victory in the $1 million Godolphin of Mendelssohn, who delivered a is a very impressive classic candidate. Mile. scintillating 18½-length romp in the $2 “You’d have to go a long way to see a World-ranked 8, Soumillon, a million UAE Derby, his first start on dirt better performance than that,” Moore nine-time champion rider in France, (see video below). He set a track record said of his UAE Derby experience. “He’s is coming off a year in which he set a for the 1900m (about 9½ furlongs, a horse with a lot of speed. He still feels European record with 306 winners, roughly equivalent to the distance of like there’s more physical improvement while Moore, the world #1, produced the Preakness Stakes) of 1:55.18 and in him, there’s more strengthening to in 2017 perhaps the finest year by now has run farther than any of his come — he’s going to get better. He’s a jockey in history. While they have anticipated rivals for the upcoming grown up a lot, but he’s still learning.” distinctively different personalities, Kentucky Derby. Mendelssohn won last year’s with the flamboyant Soumillon Coolmore paid $3 million for Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and the declaring that there would be a big Mendelssohn when he was offered as a possibilities for him are basically party after the Dubai World Cup, and yearling. He is a son of the late brilliant unlimited due to his versatility. He is the shy Moore typically avoiding any sire Scat Daddy and a half brother to now favorite for the Kentucky Derby spotlights, they share the innate ability multiple champion Beholder and to G1 virtually across the board with British to connect with their horses and get winner and top sire Into Mischief, whose bookmakers at a general 5/1. the best out of them. TRC March 2018 / The Meydan spectacular/ A landmark year for so many top breeders? / Triple Crown winners floating down the Mississippi / It’s so much better for female riders down under / P4 TRC March 2018 / The Meydan spectacular/ A landmark year for so many top breeders? / Triple Crown winners floating down the Mississippi / It’s so much better for female riders down under / P5 TB10411 GBRI TB Racing Commentary - Americans to Breeze Up Sales TRC A4 ad V2.indd 1 05/02/2018 17:20 Bin Suroor: Is his stable on the upswing again? Another star on the Dubai World Cup program was Bin Suroor, who returned to glory by marking an incredible eighth win the World Cup, which for long was the world’s richest race until the last two runnings of the owner-funded Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. Bin Suroor’s complaints last year that he had been mistreated by Sheikh Mohammed’s former top advisor, John Ferguson, in the allotment of Godolphin’s young horses led to Ferguson’s resignation.