Dubai Racing Carnival kicks off with Round 1 of Maktoum Challenge
The first of 10 programs composing the 2023 Dubai World Cup Carnival comes Friday night at Meydan Racecourse, where the Group 2, $250,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 headlines a seven-race card.
Carnival race days in 2022 switched from their traditional placement on Thursdays to Fridays. This year, there are eight Friday cards, post time at 9 a.m. Eastern, followed by the Super Saturday card on March 4 and the Dubai World Cup card March 25.
The $12 million Dubai World Cup is the highlight of the March 25 card, and 2022 winner Country Grammer is on course for a repeat bid. Trainer Michael Stidham, who won the 2021 World Cup for Godolphin with Mystic Guide, has the Godolphin homebred Proxy aimed at the Pegasus World Cup later this month and, if his performance there merits the trip, will point the 5-year-old to the Dubai World Cup.
Weekly race days might have changed but the lords of Meydan – Godolphin and their two trainers, Charlie Appleby and Saeed bin Suroor – have not. Godolphin won 27 Meydan races during the 2021-22 season, while Appleby went 19-12-13 from just 70 runners at the palatial racetrack on the edge of the desert. Bhupat Seemar, who sent Summer Is Tomorrow to a 20th-place Kentucky Derby finish last season, led all trainers last season with 30 wins at Meydan. Dubai stalwart Doug Watson comes into the Carnival atop the UAE trainer standings during the 2022-23 season with 22 winners.
William Buick and James Doyle, first- and second-call riders for Godolphin, are regulars at the Carnival. Mickael Barzalona, Richard Kingscote, and Daniel Tudhope all have mounts on Friday’s card.
American trainer Doug O’Neill sent a string headed by Hot Rod Charlie for the 2022 Carnival, and while O’Neill had 17 horses invited to the season this year, he said Wednesday he plans to send only five or six later this month.
It’s Watson with five entrants and Seemar with four who dominate the 16-runner Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1, a 1,600-meter dirt race contested around one turn. Watson won this race’s 2022 renewal with Golden Goal, who subsequently raced uncompetitively in the Burj Nahaar and the Godolphin Mile last season and was equally dull in his most recent outing Dec. 1 at Meydan.
Seemar took down place and show a year ago in Round 1 of the Maktoum Challenge, with aging warrior Secret Ambition second and Kafoo third. Both horses start in Friday’s race, with Kafoo almost certainly the superior hope to 11-year-old Secret Ambition. Buick has the mount on Kafoo, who likely needed a comeback start last month but is saddled with post 15 Friday.
Prince Eiji, another Watson charge, looks like the right horse. By Dubawi, Prince Eiji is a 7-year-old with form dating to 2018, but he was imported to Dubai in 2021 and has made only three of his starts on dirt. Racing after a long layoff, he was a convincing winner over 1,600 meters Dec. 12 at Meydan and is well drawn Thursday in post 8.
The supporting feature, the Group 2, $180,000 Al Fahidi Fort, looks less confusing. Buick rides 4-year-old Noble Truth for Appleby and Godolphin, and Noble Truth should be formidable going 1,400 meters on turf in his Dubai debut. A Group 3 type in England, Noble Truth breaks from post 11 but has plenty of time to use his tactical speed to gain some position during the long run down the backstretch into the Al Fahidi Fort’s one turn.
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