All eyes on Thunder Snow in Al Maktoum Challenge

Thunder Snow, the best-known horse wintering in Dubai, returns to action for the first time since a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic when he starts as the sure favorite Saturday night at Meydan Racecourse in the Group 1, $600,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3.

Thunder Snow is one of 10 entered in the sixth of seven races on an all-stakes card known as Super Saturday, with all the races serving as preps for major stakes on the March 30 Dubai World Cup program.

It’s the Dubai World Cup to which Thunder Snow has long been aimed by Godolphin and trainer Saeed bin Suroor, and while another Godolphin trainer, Charlie Appleby, has earned most of the headlines throughout the World Cup Carnival, which began about two months ago, bin Suroor is the one with the big horse in his barn.

Thunder Snow won the 2018 Dubai World Cup, and won it easily, surging to a five-length score over favored West Coast, but his preparation for the race last year followed a much different path than this season. In 2018, Thunder Snow raced in all three legs of the Ak Maktoum Challenge beginning in February, and he was second in this race a year ago after North America slipped clear on the lead and never looked back. No doubt, bin Suroor has put enough air into Thunder Snow during the last couple months for the 5-year-old horse to give a fair account of himself Saturday, but obviously his start three weeks hence is the main goal, and Meydan dirt races are always open to a longer-priced horse who can take an early lead or sit close.

One runner who won’t be leading is Gronkowski, the 2018 Belmont Stakes runner-up who makes his Dubai debut Saturday night and first start for trainer Salem bin Ghadayer, who has just returned from a one-year suspension due to a positive drug test.

In fact, the interesting potential bet here is another Godolphin horse, Nordic Lights, who is trained by Appleby. Nordic Lights has shown speed in two solid turf handicap performances this winter, and if not on the lead Saturday night, he should at least take up a pressing position outside Capezzano, who will struggle to stay this race’s 2,000-meter trip.

Or, maybe, this will just be a case of the best horse winning at short odds even if he is merely rehearsing for the big show.

Thunder Snow sports an official rating of 122, and at 120, Blue Point, the favorite in the Nad Al Sheba Sprint, a prep for the Al Quoz Sprint, is the second-highest rated runner on the program. Blue Point, a Godolphin-Appleby production, excels at the 1,200-meter distance at which he starts Saturday night, but was so sharp in his first Meydan race this winter that he won the Feb. 15 Meydan Sprint over 1,000 meters by five lengths. The potential, though still unlikely, upset candidate is Ekhtiyaar, who scored his own eye-catching 5 1/2-length turf-sprint win racing down Meydan’s 1,200-meter straight course in a Feb. 21 handicap.

Century Dream, fourth last summer in the Arlington Million, is the play in the Group 1, $400,000 Jebel Hatta, an 1,800-meter prep for the $6 million Dubai Turf. Century Dream probably lacks the class to actually win the Dubai Turf, and it stands to reason Saturday’s start, his second this winter in Dubai, has been a primary target for trainer Simon Crisford. Century Dream turned in a solid run finishing second last month over a 1,600-meter trip short of his best on a flat, turning track such as Meydan’s.

The Group 2, $350,000 Burj Nahaar over 1,600 meters on dirt will produce starters for both the World Cup and the Godolphin Mile on March 30, and it marks the Dubai debut of Axelrod, last seen finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Trained in the U.S. by Michael McCarthy, Axelrod now is under the care of bin Ghadayer.

The Super Saturday card, which starts with the Mahab al Shimaal, a 1,200-meter dirt-sprint prep for the Golden Shaheen, has an early first post of 7 a.m. Eastern. The Maktoum Challenge Round 3 goes at 9:55.