Dubai: North America lays over field in Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2
The 7-year-old gelding North America won the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 by roughly the breadth of a continent. And if he breaks alertly and makes the lead, the place North America likes to be, he’ll probably win the Group 2, $450,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 on Thursday at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
A year ago, North American finished second in this race, beaten only by subsequent Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow. Thunder Snow is in Dubai right now but he’s not in Thursday’s race, and with the early withdrawal from the race of Leshlaa, North America faces just five rivals, none remotely the class of Thunder Snow.
Trained by Satish Seemar for Ramzan Kadyrov, strongman president of the Chechen Republic, North America has won six times from 10 starts since he began racing on the Meydan dirt track, a racing surface that plays to his strength as a strong galloping type with front-running tendencies. North America, a son of Dubawi, might have had a real chance in the 2018 Dubai World Cup had he been able to make the lead, but he was slowly away and never got involved, fading to 10th.
Seemar had him ready for his first start since the World Cup when North America made the front and won off by nine lengths Jan. 10 in Round 1. From post 5, jockey Richard Mullen figures to make a beeline for the front – and if he gets there, North America will take care of the rest.
There’s another horse in the race, Cosmo Charlie, with the speed to potentially deny North America the lead. Cosmo Charlie started his season before the World Cup Carnival began, and in his most recent race scored an easy front-running win Dec. 20 in the Entisar Stakes, a Meydan dirt race over 2,000 meters, a half-furlong farther than Thursday’s test. Doug Watson trains Cosmo Charlie, but who does he train him for? Ramzan Kadyrov. Surely there won’t be a duel between same-owner entrants, will there?
The rest of the field, from inside out, comprises Second Summer, the Ken McPeek-trained Senior Investment, Etijaah, and New Trails.
The Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 is carded as race 5 on a seven-race card with a scheduled post of 11:50 a.m. Eastern.
Race 3 is the $250,000 UAE 2000 Guineas, a 1,600-meter dirt race that drew a field of eight 3-year-olds very much headed by Walking Thunder.
Walking Thunder, an American-bred by Violence trained for the Phoenix Ladies Syndicate by Ahmad bin Harmash, only made his career debut Nov. 1, but hit the ground running. He’s 3 for 3, having won a trio of Meydan dirt races, and exits his most impressive performance yet, a nine-length powerhouse in the Guineas Trial on Jan. 10. Walking Thunder, who has Connor Beasley in the irons for the fourth time, breaks from post 5. He has been comfortable tracking the pace in all three starts.