Discreet Cat may skip World Cup prep

If Discreet Cat is to have a prep for the $6 million Dubai World Cup, it may come in Round 3 of the Maktoum Challenge at Nad Al Sheba on March 1, Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford told the Racing Post on Tuesday. Round 3 of the Maktoum Challenge, a Grade 2 course-and-distance prep for the world's richest race, was used as a successful stepping-stone to the World Cup by Godolphin last year with Electrocutionist.

Crisford told the Racing Post that a decision about whether Discreet Cat will run in the Maktoum challenge would not be made until a week before the event. Crisford even hinted that Discreet Cat could run in the March 31 World Cup without the benefit of a prep race.

Discreet Cat is expected to meet Invasor, the Eclipse Award winner as Horse of the Year and the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Ranking's highweight, in the World Cup.

On Thursday night, the UAE 1000 Guineas, a one-mile listed event on the Nad Al Sheba dirt worth $250,000, will feature the first three finishers from a seven-furlong allowance on Jan. 25. The 3 3/4-length winner, Greetings, appears to hold an edge over the Jan. 25 runner-up, Satulagi, and the third-place finisher, La Presse, but she faces the biggest threat in a fellow Brazilian-bred, Indochine, a Group 1 winner in her native land on turf, the surface over which she won a 7 1/2-furlong allowance at Nad Al Sheba on Jan. 18.