Saturday’s Meydan card may not be part of the Dubai World Cup Carnival but the Carnival’s most successful trainer, Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor, and South Africa’s Mike De Kock are both well represented.
De Kock saddles both Specific Gravity and Final Button in a 1,600m handicap, one of two races on the card to be contested on the turf.
Johnny Geroudis rides the latter with Thierry Thulliez aboard Specific Gravity, who has the benefit of a run already this season.
The trainer said: “Specific Gravity ran well for a long way at the first Carnival meeting and will have improved for that run.
“Final Button was perhaps a bit disappointing at the Carnival last year but seems in good form, though he has been off since March.”
Their 14 opponents include the Bin Suroor-trained Famous Poet, second in two of his three starts in the UK last year and the mount of Silvestre De Sousa.
Canwinn, to be ridden by James Doyle for Dhruba Selvaratnam, and Dream Tune, representing the powerful combination of Champion Trainer Ernst Oertel and Champion Jockey Tadhg O’Shea, are just others to consider.
The 1,200m turf handicap is just as competitive although Selvaratnam and Doyle will be hoping Roicead can go close.
An excellent fourth in a better 1,000m race on the first night of the Carnival, the duo combined to win the big sprint on Thursday with United Color.
Doyle said: “That was a big win on Thursday and Roicead ran a great race the week before.”
With the Musabah Al Muhairi team in such great form, his pair of Hattaash and Chasing Halos merit the utmost respect in another ultra competitive heat.
Bin Suroor has two in the race, I’m Back, the choice of Silvestre De Sousa, and the Ahmed Ajtebi-ridden Pied A Terre. T
hey should both run well, while it looks significant that De Kock elects to drop Red Duke. A Group 2 winner as a juvenile back in 2011, he has not won since and the only time he has run over a trip this short was on his racecourse bow, in May 2011.
