Dubai: Lord Glitters sparkles in Jebel Hatta Stakes

Salute the Soldier won the featured Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 on Super Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, but save a special salute for Lord Glitters.

The 8-year-old warrior burst between horses in very deep stretch and won the Group 1, $260,000 Jebel Hatta Stakes by a half length under Daniel Tudhope. It was a second Group 1 success for Lord Glitters, who won the Group 1 Queen Anne in June 2019 at Royal Ascot. That race came about three months after Lord Glitters may have hit a career peak when he finished third behind the great Almond Eye and another high-level Japanese mare, Vivlos, in the Dubai Turf, a race which he is targeting again, this year with no such formidable rivals standing in his way.

England-based David O’Meara sent Lord Glitters to Dubai for the entire World Cup Carnival and Saturday’s was his third start of the season. Lord Glitters won the Singspiel Stakes in January and was third last out in the Al Rashidiya, a race that lacked the solid early and middle pace that helps late-running Lord Glitters.

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On Saturday the tempo was slow again, but Lord Glitters got home anyway while rallying from the rear of an 11-horse field. Al Suhail, strongly favored for Godolphin in his first start since July, proved his own worst enemy, pulling too hard down the backstretch and into the turn before being taken wide for a run. Al Suhail has some real talent and put it to good use from upper stretch to the 150-meter mark, but this 1,800-meter race was the colt’s first try beyond 1,600 meters and his failure to settle ruined whatever chance he had of staying the trip. As Al Suhail’s move flattened, Lord Glitters came steadily forward, splitting rivals in the final 50 meters on his way to a satisfying win.

Lord Glitters is by Whipper, out of Lady Glitter, by Homme de Loi, and this was the 35th start of a career that began in April 2016. Eqtiraan wound up edging Al Suhail for second as the winner clocked 1:48.44 over “good” going.

As for Salute the Soldier, he firmly established himself as the best older dirt-route horse racing this winter in Dubai – for whatever that is worth – winning the Group 1, $390,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 with a front-running trip under Adrie de Vries. The 6-year-old gelding, trained by Fawzi Nass, tried dirt for the first time in March 2020, winning the Group 3 Burj Nahaar, and got an early start to this campaign racing in December before making starts in all three rounds of the Maktoum Challenge.

Third in the first of those races, at 1,600 meters around one turn, he won the 1,900-meter Round 2 in February and always was in control of Saturday’s 2,000-meter contest. Never threatened, Salute the Soldier, who is by Sepoy, out of the Street Cry mare Street Fire, was home by 1 3/4 lengths over Hypothetical, Roman Rosso a well-beaten third as the winner clocked 2:03.09 over a fast dirt track. Salute the Soldier clearly has earned a spot in the Dubai World Cup, but will be facing a different class of horse March 27.

The same can be said of the Dubai dirt-sprinters in the Mahab al Shimaal, a prep for the Golden Shaheen, which was won from off the pace by Canvassed, up by a neck over Good Effort, who did put forth a good effort. Good Effort, racing wide, went to the front midway around the far turn and went hard from there to the wire, Canvassed easing off his rail spot in midstretch and collaring Good Effort in the final half-furlong. Winning time for the 1,200 meters was 1:10.20 as Lavaspin finished third, beaten 2 1/2 lengths by Good Effort. Premier Star, an American import making his Dubai debut, ran like a horse that needed a race, checking in fourth for trainer Doug Watson, who also trains the winner. Pat Dobbs rode Canvassed, a 6-year-old son of Shamardal, out of Painter’s Pride, by Dansili.

Midnight Sands went from Dubai last spring to make three American starts in Kentucky, failing to show his best form, but he got back on track in the $228,000 Burj Nahaar, a prep for the Godolphin Mile. Dobbs riding for Watson, Midnight Sands traveled strongly into the race around the far turn and won as he pleased, posting a 2 1/4-length victory over Chiefdom. Midnight Sands, a 5-year-old by Speightstown out of It’s Midnight, by Shamardal, now has won six in a row over the Meydan dirt track and figures to be formidable in the Godolphin Mile.

Heavily favored Walton Street, a 7-year-old Cape Cross gelding, doesn’t have the form of a contender for the Sheema Classic on March 27 but was much the best in the prep for that race, the Dubai City of Gold. Appleby trains him for Godolphin, while the Saeed bin Suroor branch of the Godolphin operation won the Dubai Turf Sprint with Final Song.