In case you missed it, they ran a race of interest in Dubai Thursday morning.
The $50,000 Ford Flex Trophy (about 7 furlongs) featured the three-year-old debut of 2008 Sanford Stakes (G2) winner Desert Party and Saratoga maiden graduate Regal Ransom.
Desert Party stalked the pace and then switched to the inside during the long stretch run to score a half-length win over his stablemate. Both of the top finishers looked good in the field of 16, which included South Africa’s champion two-year-old Rocks Off (who is now a four-year-old).
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum purchased Desert Party and Regal Ransom at the 2008 Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
Desert Party, by Street Cry (Ire) out of Sage Cat, by Tabasco Cat, was the $2.1-million sale topper and the most expensive two-year-old to sell at auction last year. Regal Ransom, a Distorted Humor colt out of Kelli’s Ransom, by Red Ransom, sold for $675,000.
With likely two-year-old champion Midshipman and Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Vineyard Haven based in Dubai, the racing carnival at Nad al Sheba will be of greater interest on the Triple Crown trail than ever before.
---
While we’re on the subject, this Dubai Racing Club press release was making the rounds in our office Thursday morning. The theory being pushed by the writer is that, contrary to what many American horsemen believe, a trip to Dubai does not take much out of a horse.
The case study is 11-year-old Tour of the Cat, who finished eighth in the 2004 Dubai Golden Shaheen (UAE-G1) but has remained a productive racehorse, albeit after taking 14 months off at the end of 2004 and gradually sliding down the class scale.
Tour of the Cat’s January 18 win at Aqueduct prompted a press release from NYRA recognizing the old millionaire warrior.
The Dubai Racing Club latched onto the story but attached a different spin. Here’s the key sentence.
“The [January 18, 2009] victory is more evidence disproving a myth that has been circulated by some members of the American media that horses that travel to the Middle East to race often don’t perform much longer afterward.”
What the press release failed to disclose was that Tour of the Cat’s victory last Sunday came in a $7,500 claiming race!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I always thought the argument was the fact that they need A LOT of time to completely recover from the trip.
If Tour of the Cat needed 14 months off but was say Curlin instead, he would have just been retired. Whether they are right or not, I don't think their case study helped their case very much!
Yeah, the argument is that some horses are never the same after the trip to Dubai (or as Julie C. said, it takes a long time to recover).
And that's not necessarily an indictment of Dubai. The same could be said for any cross-world trip to run in a big race.
But the fact that a former graded stakes winner can win a $7,500 claiming race on the Aqueduct inner doesn't prove anything.
Post a Comment