Hit Show’s late charge under Florent Geroux upturned what for a few moments looked like being a hefty Frankie Dettori payday in the G1 Dubai World Cup (2000m) on Saturday. But Meydan’s big night was marked by what might be termed the ‘Saudi Effect’ as the top-billed stars Forever Young, Romantic Warrior, Straight No Chaser and Shin Emperor, the lead players in Riyadh five weeks ago, all failed, some dismally.
While Hong Kong’s champion Romantic Warrior was edged out by the flared nostril of Japan’s Soul Rush in the G1 Dubai Turf (1800m), Forever Young was a well-beaten third in a Dubai World Cup he was expected to dominate, Shin Emperor was a toiling seventh in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic (2410m), and the star U.S. sprinter Straight No Chaser was never a factor in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen (1200m).
Forever Young’s eclipse gave weighty ballast to the adage that horses are not machines. Yoshito Yahagi’s dirt track hero had pounds in hand of his rivals on official ratings and was expected to power home triumphantly on the back of his rallying victory in the G1 Saudi Cup (1800m) last time over Romantic Warrior, the horse deemed the world’s best on turf.
Ryusei Sakai, Forever Young’s rider, was one of five Japanese jockeys, Keita Tosaki included, who went out to check the dirt and turf track surfaces between the early races: Sakai made directly for the dirt, deep inside the final furlong, bent down, took a handful, and rubbed it through his fingers; then to the inner rail to pace half a dozen baby steps before examining the turf track.
That careful preparation was all for nought. Forever Young was beaten long before the winning post came into view. Struggling and battling under Sakai’s drive to finish a brave third, but flat, a shadow of the athlete that had won the world’s richest race just weeks before.
“The start was good, and I wanted him to race maybe in second but Ryusei told me the horse didn’t really move forward, so in the final straight he was gaining some, but in the rest of the race he was reluctant. In future, we should overcome this,” Yahagi said.
“Me as a trainer, also my ‘apprentice’, we are still not good enough so we will regroup and start again.”
But Yahagi, without revealing specifics, articulated his disappointment at the way his horse and his team were treated on a night that also left a good number of trainers, jockeys and media professionals frustrated or annoyed, due to the security measures in place around the paddock and weighing room areas that ranged from stringent, through woefully incompetent, to wholly inconsistent.
Yahagi himself, Forever Young’s saddle in hand, was barred and turned away from entering the walkway to the saddling boxes, and he wasn’t the only one.
“It’s a pity, we got treated like an away team, but that sounds like an excuse so I didn’t want to say this, but we were treated really badly. Because of that the horse was acting up and that was a disadvantage for him. I think we should have overcome that and we have no excuse for losing,” Yahagi added.
With Forever Young toiling behind, Dettori took the kind of initiative that has won him four Dubai World Cups. The troubled Italian, recently declared bankrupt in Britain, pushed his mount Mixto past the pace-setting Walk Of Stars to take the lead 300m out, and with that pair clear, it looked like Dettori’s night.
Then came Geroux and the Brad Cox-trained Hit Show with a deep-closing surge.
“Amazing,” said Geroux. “It was a great trip, my horse responded for me the whole way, navigating traffic. There were a few anxious moments during the race between the far turn when Forever Young was stopping, I feel like, in front of me. I can’t believe it, honestly, it’s a dream come true. I don’t know what it is about this horse, every time I ride him, he responds.”
Cox watched the race from the United States but paid tribute by phone to a stunning victory for the Qatari royal family’s burgeoning Wathnan operation.
“He turned into somewhat of a win machine last fall and he’s got so much confidence, he just knows how to win. He’s a classy horse,” Cox said of the Breeders’ Cup Classic-bound five-year-old.
“(Florent) has been riding consistently for us as a whole and he just, he gave the horse a great trip. The horse responds really well to Florent … He’s a world class rider.”
Despite Forever Young’s failure, it was a good meeting for Japan with three wins: the Yasutoshi Ikee-trained Soul Rush’s win over Romantic Warrior in the Dubai Turf brought revenge for the former’s defeat behind the latter in last year’s G1 Yasuda Kinen; it also made amends for jockey Cristian Demuro’s narrow defeat aboard Namur in a photo-finish to the same race last year.
“Last year I was beaten, this time I won, the luck was with me this year. Soul Rush has beaten the best horse in the world, it was a fantastic trip behind him. Last year I thought I won and I was beaten, so this time I was waiting to celebrate. I’m very happy,” Demuro said.
“After the Jebel Hatta win, Romantic Warrior had one more race, in Saudi, so maybe he was a little more tired today and he was beaten by my horse who was in perfect condition.”
Meanwhile, last year’s G1 Tokyo Yushun hero, the Shogo Yasuda-trained Danon Decile, made it two from two for the year and showed that he should be a serious force wherever he goes this year after a strong win in the Sheema Classic.
Tosaki got the job done, sweeping past last year’s winer Rebel’s Romance to score from Calandagan, with Durezza keeping on for third. York and the Juddmonte International Stakes in August were mooted during the week but connections said after the race that they would discuss options.
Trainer Yukihiro Kato, on the other hand, was decisive in declaring an intention for Admire Daytona to head to the G1 Kentucky Derby after Christophe Lemaire drove the three-year-old to a narrow success in the G2 UAE Derby.
The fixture’s big dirt track sprint, the Dubai Golden Shaheen, was billed as a head-to-head between last year’s winner Tuz and the U.S. raider, Straight No Chaser. The latter was never travelling well, though, and finished eighth behind the winner Dark Saffron, ridden brilliantly from the front by Connor Beasley. Tuz was only third.
Beasley had the biggest day of his career, having also taken out the opening G1 Kahayla Classic for Purebred Arabians on the Doug Watson-trained First Class.
The G1 Al Quoz Sprint was a thriller as the George Boughey-trained Believing scored under William Buick in a three-way finish, with Win Carnelian second and Regional third. In behind, the Hong Kong runner Howdeepisyourlove broke down and was later euthanized.
Dettori missed out in the big one but earlier it was like old times when he won his 24th race at a Dubai World Cup meeting. The man who was once synonymous with Dubai’s Godolphin operation hit the board with the Doug O’Neill-trained Raging Torrent in the G2 Godolphin Mile, and, despite his 54 years, duly treated the crowd to one of his famous flying dismounts, complete with double fist pump.
There was a further throwback, this time to African Story’s 2014 Dubai World Cup win, when the same connections that prevailed on that occasion, jockey Silvestre de Sousa, trainer Saeed bin Suroor and Godolphin, teamed up to win the G2 Dubai Gold Cup with the nine-year-old Dubai Future ∎
