Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 headlines final Dubai World Cup preps

The Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 on Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai carries a $600,000 purse. A race in the same division and region, the Saudi Cup, was run Feb. 29 for a $20 million purse. You can imagine where all the best older dirt-route horses on the Arabian Peninsula wound up.

The first year of the Saudi Cup has left the final round of the Al Maktoum Challenge as something less than a high-level prep for the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28, and Quip, at 113, is the top-rated horse in the 2,000-meter race.

American expatriate Quip could only finish fifth in the Firebreak Stakes, his first start in Dubai, but his trainer, Doug Watson, expects serious improvement upon that Feb. 13 showing. Matterhorn, also set to move forward in his second start this season, could prove the main opposition.

Round 3 of the Al Maktoum Challenge goes as the sixth of seven races on a card dubbed Super Saturday, with preparatory opportunities for most of the major races on the World Cup program.

Saturday’s lid-lifter, the Al Bastakiya, is a 1,900-meter lead-in to the UAE Derby over the same trip three weeks hence, and the leading 3-year-old in Dubai, the filly Down On Da Bayou, isn’t running. Down On Da Bayou won the UAE Oaks on Feb. 20 by 18 1/2 lengths over Dubai Love, who’s the top-rated horse in the Al Bastakiya, suggesting the UAE Derby, won by American shipper Plus Que Parfait in 2019, could be open to a foreign invader.

Race 2 is the Mahab al Shimaal, a Group 3, $350,000 prep for the Dubai Golden Shaheen, which typically has American shippers as leading contenders, though Imperial Hint’s flop in Saudi Arabia last Saturday and the absence of Shancelot, who’s out with an injury, could open up this year’s Shaheen.

Race 3 is the Group 3, $350,000 Nad al Sheba Turf Sprint, a 1,200-meter straight-course dash leading up to the Al Quoz Sprint on March 28. The race marks the Dubai debut of the Charlie Appleby-trained Space Blues, a talented Godolphin 4-year-old who had multiple Group 1 placings as a European 3-year-old in 2019, albeit over longer trips than the one he travels Saturday.

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Race 4, the Group 3, $350,000 Burj Nahaar, is a prep for the Godolphin Mile, toward which the very sharp American horse Mr Freeze is being pointed. There are some decent horses in Saturday’s race, too, including the Doug O’Neill-trained Blitzkrieg, who is stretching out in distance and switching over from encouraging Dubai turf races; Kimbear, who will appreciate cutting back from a two-turn route to a one-turn mile; and Axelrod, last seen running ninth in the 2019 World Cup.

Barney Roy heads the Group 1, $400,000 Jebel Hatta, an 1,800-meter grass race that will land Barney Roy in the Dubai Turf on March 28 if he runs to form. A failed stallion, Barney Roy returned to racing last year in Europe, showed only modest form, but was much better Jan. 30 in his Dubai debut.

Race 7, the City of Gold, a prep for the Sheema Classic, marks the first start outside Europe for the Group 1-winning 6-year-old Defoe, who figures to be a major player Saturday even just prepping for his main goal three weeks from now.