Dubai: Algiers too much for rivals in Maktoum Challenge Round 1 at Meydan
Algiers made short work of 15 rivals winning the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1, featured race on the first program of the 2023 Dubai World Cup Carnival on Friday at Meydan Racecourse.
Algiers was one of three winners on the card for jockey James Doyle, who also landed the Group 2, $180,000 Al Fahidi Fort and the $100,000 Dubai Dash, both for Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby.
The Group 2, $250,000 Maktoum Challenge Round 1 was a competitive race on paper but turned into a one-horse race. Algiers stalked on the outside, took the lead in upper stretch, and quickly drew well clear of his rivals. The outcome never was in doubt the final 200 meters, Algiers won by 6 1/2 lengths, clocking 1:35.88 for the one-turn, 1,600-meter race on dirt. That was among the faster times in the race since it’s been run over the Meydan dirt track.
Trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, Algiers wintered for the first time in Dubai last season, seeing the first dirt action of his career and taking to the surface well enough to win the Group 3 Jebel Ali Mile last February. He was eighth in the Godolphin Mile on the World Cup card in March and never had run as strong as race as the one he turned in Friday night. Six-year-old Algiers is by Shamardal out of Antara, by Platini.
In the Al Fahidi Fort, a 1,400-meter grass race, Noble Truth was the odds-on favorite. But Noble Truth, William Buick riding for Godolphin and Appleby, was finished in upper stretch and ran last of 15, as his 9-1 stablemate Al Suhail stormed home a four-length winner under Doyle. Al Suhail, a 6-year-old by Dubawi out of Shirocco Star, by Shirocco, had been third, 12th, and 13th in his three Meydan turf starts and, like Algiers, appeared to run the race of his life.
Those two 6-year-old Friday stake winners are babies compared to 11-year-old Switzerland, who captured the Group 3, $150,000 Dubawi Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths in his first start since posting an upset in the Group 1 Goldens Shaheen last March. With Tadgh O’Shea riding for Bhupat Seemar, Switzerland swept wide to the lead in midstretch and edged clear of Mubakker through the final half-furlong. The one-time U.S.-based sprinter is by Speightstown out of Czechers, by Indian Charlie.
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