There may be better race meetings worldwide, but no programme brings together global storylines quite like the Dubai World Cup.
There is the obvious – well-known superstars like Forever Young, Romantic Warrior and Liberty Island – but there are so many compelling stories that cannot be found at any other international meeting.
There’s the ‘Pride of Pyatigorsk’, Tuz, who won his first two races by a combined 42 lengths in the southern Russian city before progressing to become one of the best dirt sprinters on the planet. He is aiming to become the third horse to win the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m) twice.
There is Antonio Sano, the most successful trainer in Venezuelan history, who was twice kidnapped at gunpoint – on one occasion he was held hostage for 36 days – before moving to the United States. He has his second ever Dubai World Cup runner, Il Miracolo; Gunnevera ran twice, finishing third to Thunder Snow in 2019.
This year, though, there is no more global story than that of G2 UAE Derby (1900m) runner Queen Azteca. Her journey to the meeting has seen her traverse three continents and numerous countries.
Bred at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky, she is a daughter of Sharp Azteca out of a Palace Malice mare; both Sharp Azteca and Palace Malice now stand in Japan. She descends from American royalty: undefeated 1980s champion Personal Ensign and her daughter My Flag.
Originally sold at Keeneland for US$22,000 (HK$171,200) as a yearling, she was secured by Irish buyer Justin Rea. He on-sold her for 30,000 guineas (HK$316,600) at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up Sale in the UK last year.
Enter Niels Petersen, Scandinavia’s 13-time champion trainer. Danish by birth and a former member of Denmark’s cavalry, he has been based at Ovrevoll – Norway’s only thoroughbred racecourse, situated on the outskirts of Oslo – since 1998.
Petersen has been a regular in the Middle East since his first foray in 2007, saddling up more than 200 starters between the defunct Nad Al Sheba track, its replacement Meydan and the local Jebel Ali course. He has also had runners in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.
Until this season, though, he had only had one winner in the Middle East: Beat Baby, a Meydan handicap winner on dirt in 2015. The year before, Beat Baby had finished a long last behind Hong Kong’s Amber Sky in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1000m) on the Meydan turf.
When Petersen’s Queen Azteca was unplaced in her first two starts on turf during the summer last year – once in Norway, once in Sweden – it would have seemed extraordinary for her to make it to a stakes race anywhere. A switch to dirt brought her to life though, as she won a mile race at Jagersro in Sweden by five lengths in September before she shipped to Dubai.
Beaten at her first run at Meydan late last year, she has won both starts as a three-year-old, proving the best filly locally with an eight-length romp in the Cocoa Beach Stakes (1600m) before a fighting triumph over Arigatou Gozaimasu in the G3 UAE Oaks (1900m).
Throughout her Meydan stint, her loyal partner has been jockey Carlos Lopez, who is set to have his first ride on Dubai World Cup night. Born in Chile, the 43-year-old was the number two apprentice in Santiago when he moved to Denmark in 2000.
After sweeping all of the top Scandinavian races, he became the first Chilean jockey to win a race in Dubai in 2019.
Should Queen Azteca perform in the UAE Derby against the boys, next month’s G1 Kentucky Oaks may beckon. That would see Queen Azteca’s incredible global tale return to within an hour of her birthplace, continuing a truly remarkable campaign ∎
