Appleby, Buick team up for big night in Dubai

Godolphin, trainer Charlie Appleby, and jockey William Buick had themselves a night Thursday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, where Blue Point and Poetic Charm scored runaway Group 2 stakes victories and the 3-year-old Art Du Vaal set a 1,900-meter turf-course record in a blowout conditions-race win.

Blue Point did what he was supposed to do as an overwhelming favorite against underwhelming competition in the 1,000-meter, straight-course, $250,000 Meydan Sprint. Seizing control with about 200 meters left, Blue Point widened to the wire to win by five lengths over the capable Fatinaah while stopping the timer in a snappy 56.52 seconds.

Scratched behind the gate before the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint last year on the Dubai World Cup card, Blue Point went on to land the Group 1 King’s Stand at Royal Ascot last June and is headed toward favoritism March 30 in the Al Quoz. Blue Point is a 5-year-old horse by Shamardal and out of Scarlett Rose, by Royal Applause.

The 4-year-old filly Poetic Charm lacks Blue Point’s world-class reputation but now is 2 for 2 this winter at Meydan, adding an easy 2 3/4-length win Thursday in the $250,000 Balanchine Stakes to her tally Jan. 17 in the Cape Verdi.

Stretching out from 1,600 meters to 1,800 on Thursday night, Poetic Charm raced outside at the back of a six-horse field that went two-by-two down the backstretch and around the far turn on the Meydan grass course. Buick peeled out widest at the top of the homestretch, urged his mount seriously for a furlong or so and, with the win well in hand, rode her with much less encouragement to the finish.

Mia Tesoro finished decently for second as fifth-place Furia Cruzada continues to suggest to her connections that she wants a return to dirt racing.

Poetic Charm is by Dubawi and out of Speirbhean, by Danehill, and while she is having a fine season, a race like the Group 1 Dubai Turf on the World Cup card – the logical conclusion to her World Cup Carnival campaign if her connections elect to take that route – might prove too difficult at this juncture.

Who knows where Art Du Vaal’s ceiling might be? The 3-year-old No Nay Never colt won his debut over 1,400 meters in September at Sandown Park, was a decent second in a listed race at Deauville over 1,600 in October and, in his Dubai debut Thursday, ran circles around 11 rivals in a conditions race. He won by four lengths and stopped the timer in a course-record 1:56.94, albeit over a 1,900-meter distance used sparingly at Meydan.

Muntazah won the night’s other Group 2 race, the $200,000 Firebreak over 1,600 meters on dirt, a lead-in to the Godolphin Mile on the World Cup card. Racing in midpack during the early and middle stages, Muntazah and jockey Jim Crowley ran up to pacesetting favorite Heavy Metal with about 500 meters left, took the lead without Heavy Metal offering stiff resistance, and cruised home to a 4 1/2-length win in 1:38.21. Doug Watson trains Muntazah, a 6-year-old Dubawi gelding, for Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum.