Dubai Carnival kicks off with Dubawi Stakes

The word “international” gets thrown around as a marketing tool, a brittle term intended to connote sophistication that often rings hollow. But make no mistake: The Dubai World Cup Carnival, which starts again Thursday at Meydan Racecourse, is truly international. Even before horses ship for the Dubai World Cup card on March 28, stables from jurisdictions as far flung as Sweden, Korea, and Australia will set up shop for some rich winter racing in the desert.

Also present this winter is a string from California-based trainer Doug O’Neill, who runs horses on the World Cup card nearly every season but this winter will campaign stock throughout the Carnival, a series of nine Thursday-night programs and the so-called Super Saturday card featuring prep races for World Cup night itself.

The internationals aside, expect the usual suspects to predominate during the Carnival. Godolphin, through trainers Charlie Appleby and Saeed bin Suroor, has easily the strongest turf stable in Dubai, while trainer Doug Watson traditionally has the deepest division of dirt horses.

One major change this winter that has nothing to do with the Dubai Racing Club or the Emirates Racing Authority – the Saudi Cup. The new racing festival Feb. 29 at Riyadh has the $20 million Saudi Cup over nine furlongs on dirt as its centerpiece while also featuring a series of lucrative undercard races likely to pilfer starters from the Super Saturday program. The 28-day gap between the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup, though, seems more synergistic than adversarial with American stars like Midnight Bisou and McKinzie possible runners in both races.

No such elite runners are entered on Thursday’s opening program, which has the Group 3, $200,000 Dubawi Stakes over 1,200 meters (about six furlongs) on dirt as the headliner. Top-rated at 111 among the expected starters is the Watson-trained Drafted, last seen finishing fifth in the Group 1 Golden Shaheen, part of the World Cup undercard last March. Drafted finished second in this race a year ago before going on to dirt-sprint stakes victories in late January and March.

Set to make his Dubai debut after being purchased by local connections is Gladiator King, who at his 3-year-old peak during the first part of 2019 won the Grade 3 Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Now trained by Satish Seemar, Gladiator King possesses an historically valuable Meydan dirt-racing commodity – early speed. Front-runners generally have dominated dirt races at Meydan, where the kickback can be heavy, but in pre-Carnival programs this winter, the prevailing bias hasn’t been as strong as in past seasons.

Also entered on Thursday night’s card is Suedois, last seen finishing a close third from a poor outside draw in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland. Trained by David O’Meara, Suedois was shipped from England to California for the Breeders’ Cup Mile but had to be scratched with a minor injury. Suedois, at 110, is the top-rated horse in a 1,400-meter (about seven furlongs) turf handicap.