Benbatl experiments on dirt in Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2

Benbatl will audition for a start in the $10 million Dubai World Cup – if not an even richer race before then – when he makes his dirt debut Thursday night at Meydan in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2.

The race, over 1,900 meters (about 9 ½ furlongs) is a Grade 2 worth $450,000, but those particulars are secondary consideration for owner Godolphin, trainer Saeed bin Suroor, and jockey Christophe Soumillon. Benbatl won the $6 million Dubai Turf on the 2018 World Cup card and is a Group 1 winner on three continents, but dirt racing is a land he’s yet to explore.

“He works very well on the all-weather Tapeta at Al Quoz, but that is Tapeta,” bin Suroor told Dubai Racing Club publicity. “On Thursday, it will be his first time on dirt, so we will see.”

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Benbatl’s opposition is nine horses strong and includes Gronkowski, who was beaten a nose by Thunder Snow, Godolphin, bin Suroor, and Soumillon in the 2019 World Cup. Gronkowski finished third in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 racing over a 1,600-meter distance short of his best while making his first start since the World Cup. The two in front of him that night, Military Law and Saltarin Dubai, both return for the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2.

It’s not at all inconceivable that both heavy hitters in Thursday’s race, Benbatl and Gronkowski, could start outside Dubai later this month with a positive performance. The inaugural edition of the $20 million Saudi Cup is slated for Feb. 29.

Six-year-old Benbatl will have no trouble adapting to the distance of this start and is by Dubawi, whose offspring have periodically proven capable dirt performers. Benbatl is out of the Selkirk mare Nahrain and there is next to nothing in his female family hinting at dirt potential, though his high class could carry him through Thursday’s race.

The Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 is the fifth of seven races at Meydan, has a scheduled post time of 11:50 a.m. Eastern, and is one of several races of some import on a program that starts at 9:30 Eastern.

Race 3 is the Group 3, $250,000 UAE 2000 Guineas, a 1,600-meter early prep for the UAE Derby on the World Cup card. Among the 16 entrants in the field’s main body is Fore Left, one of five entrants that American trainer Doug O’Neill has for this card. Fore Left was an early developer, winning races in May and June as a 2-year-old, and could struggle to see out a distance of about one mile.

Laser Show, a New Approach colt trained by bin Suroor for Godolphin, won the Al Bastakiya trial over about 1 3/16 miles on dirt last month by 4 ½ lengths and ought to handle the cut back to one mile. Liam’s Legend won a maiden race for trainer Rodolphe Brisset at Keeneland last fall in his most recent race and now has moved into the Dubai shed row of trainer Doug Watson.

Watson sends out high-weighted Ekhtiyaar in the listed $175,000 Dubai Sprint, a handicap race over a straight 1,200 meters on turf that leads to the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint over the same trip on the World Cup program. Ekhtiyaar finished ninth in the 2019 Al Quoz but was a fine second to the excellent Blue Point in the 2019 renewal of the Dubai Sprint.

O’Neill has Blitzkrieg in this race. He was fourth going 1,400 meters on turf Jan. 23 in the Al Fahidi Fort, his Dubai debut.