No horse has won this race twice, but that could well change with last year’s winner, Dormello, looking the one to beat for trainer Dhruba Selvaratnam and his main patron, Sheikh Ahmed.
Winner of a 2000m Carnival handicap at Meydan on his latest start, he arrives here in great form with Pat Dobbs taking over in the saddle from Chris Hayes, required to ride in Ireland on the first day of their flat season.
Selvartanam said: “He has been running well all season and must have a big chance of following up last year’s win.”
Dormello would appear the one to beat but the Satish Seemar-trained Cross Grain is a fascinating contender among his 11 rivals.
The mount of Richard Mullen, Seemar’s charge has only one previous turf outing to his name, a 1400m victory at Abu Dhabi a fortnight ago. That was actually only his sixth career start and Mullen explained: “He has always been a really nice horse but has suffered numerous setbacks.
“We were keen to run him on turf so when that race appeared two weeks ago, we saved him for that. He won then and should, hopefully, cope with this big step up.”
Sheikh Hamdan owns five of the 12 declared runners with Paul Hanagan choosing to ride the Ali Rashid Al Raihe-trained Khusoosy with Dane O’Neill electing to partner Zamaam, trained by Erwan Charpy.
The Purebred Arabian equivalent is the Group 1 Emirates Championship, over the same 2200m. Eric Lemartinel and Sheikh Khalifa have a strong hand, combining with four of the ten declared runners.
Of the quartet, Tadhg O’Shea has opted for Abu Alabyad with stable companion, Abhaar, the mount of Wayne Smith appealing as a big danger.
Nacer Samiri has enjoyed a great first season training predominantly for Sheikh Mansour and they have three runners in the race.
