Dubai: Furia Cruzada the class of Cape Verdi Stakes
The Group 2, $250,000 Cape Verdi Stakes headlines the Jan. 17 Dubai World Cup Carnival card at Meydan on a program that also includes two runners from the small Dubai string of American trainer Ken McPeek.
The Cape Verdi is restricted to fillies and mares and contested over 1,600 meters (about one mile) around one bend on turf. The race has produced some really good winners, including Sun Classique, who moved on from a 2008 Cape Verdi win to capture the Group 1 Sheema Classic two months later. But this renewal doesn’t pack an especially strong punch.
Top-rated at 105 is the Dubai stalwart Furia Cruzada, a 7-year-old American-bred mare by Newfoundland whose real calling is the Meydan dirt track. During the 2018 World Cup Carnival she finished third on dirt in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 and even was a respectable seventh in the Dubai World Cup. Furia Cruzada, who already has gotten in two starts this winter, both for trainer Erwan Charpy, has some grass ability but almost certainly prefers a distance longer than she races Thursday.
Godolphin has three of the seven entrants, with the Charlie Appleby-trained Poetic Charm top-rated among them at 103. Poetic Charm, a 4-year-old by Dubawi, was Group 3-placed last year in Europe but last was seen at Keeneland, where she finished 11th in the Grade 3 Valley View Stakes after racing too keenly in the early and middle stages.
Godolphin’s other two are 5-year-old Victory Wave and 4-year-old Asoof. Victory Wave was sixth in a 1,400-meter handicap making her Dubai debut on Jan. 3, gets the 1,600 meters adequately, and could improve enough in her second run of the Carnival to factor. Asoof was a progressive handicap runner through the second half of 2018 in England but from all appearances needs a longer race to show her best.
McPeek’s entrants are Honorable Treasure in the card’s first race (post time 9:30 a.m. Eastern) and Harlan Strong in race 5. Honorable Treasure runs in a 1,200-meter dirt handicap, a race probably shorter than his best trip. Honorable Treasure most recently finished third behind Copper Bullet in a Nov. 23 Churchill Downs allowance race. Harlan Strong is one of 11 entrants in a 2,000-meter turf handicap, and as a listed-stakes-class American runner who stays the trip he’s not without a chance, though U.S.-based turf-route horses have long struggled in Dubai stakes races, at least on the World Cup program.
