Dubai: Nations Pride wins first turf race in inaugural Jumeirah Derby
Nations Pride, scoring for the first time on turf, was an easy winner of the inaugural Jumeirah Derby on Friday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Settled into a stalking position under James Doyle, Nations Pride overpowered his favored stablemate. New Kingdom. at the 300-meter mark and drew clear to a 3 1/2-length victory in this $200,000 race restricted to 3-year-olds. Sed Marib outlasted New Kingdom for second as New Kingdom failed to stay this 2,000-meter trip.
The distance worked just fine for Nations Pride, who’d already won at 2,000 meters racing over the Chelmsford Park all-weather surface last fall. Nations Pride’s lone grass start, his career debut, yielded a second-place finish in a Yarmouth maiden contest in England, but that was a 1,400-meter sprint and Nations Pride looked every bit the grass performer Friday.
Doyle settled him on the tail of New Kingdom, who raced without cover nearest pacesetting Pjerrot around the race’s lone turn, steering his mount for an outside run as the horses turned into the long homestretch. Nations Pride let loose a decent turn of foot and sustained his run to the wire, stopping the timer in 2:01.72 over good going. The strong second choice, Nations Pride paid $5.10 to win.
Charlie Appleby trains the Godolphin homebred, a son of Teofilo and the Oasis Dream mare Important Time.
“He did very well considering it was only his fourth run and he’d had a long time between runs,” Doyle told Dubai Racing Club publicity. “He was quite a handful going down to the start, but this will settle him nicely.”
Appleby, Doyle, and Godolphin notched a turf stakes double on the card as Royal Fleet nipped his stablemate Star Safari in the Group 3, $150,000 Dubai Millennium Stakes, another 2,000-meter turf race. Royal Fleet made the lead in upper stretch but idled, allowing Star Safari to take the lead in the final furlong before fighting back to win by a nose. Royal Fleet was timed in 2:01.61 and paid $4.40 as the favorite.
Four-year-old Royal Fleet sports a flashy record, 8-5-0-2, but has been carefully managed, never trying especially high-level competition. Friday’s win was his first at the group stakes level. Royal Fleet is by Dubawi out of Zibelina, by Dansili.