Frosted goes in first Dubai World Cup prep on Thursday

While California Chrome is in Dubai training toward a prep race for the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26, World Cup hopeful Frosted is getting right down to the business of racing. Frosted and four other Kiaran McLaughlin-trained horses arrived in Dubai from the U.S. on Jan. 24, and four of them – Frosted included – are slated to race on the Thursday card at Meydan Racecourse.

Final declarations for the seven-race card hadn’t been made by Monday afternoon, but barring the unforeseen, Frosted will line up in the starting gate Thursday night in the Group 2, $250,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2, a dirt race at 1,900 meters, or about 1 3/16 miles. Frosted, among the best North American 3-year-olds of 2015, will be making his first start since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Frosted and the other McLaughlin shippers, all owned by Godolphin, are stabled in isolation at the Marmoom Stables, where Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby keeps his string. McLaughlin said last week that Frosted could start again in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 or go straight from Thursday’s race to the World Cup, but that no plans would be set until after the race this week. McLaughlin flew to Dubai on Sunday, joining his brother, assistant trainer Neal McLaughlin, who has been overseeing the horses’ preparation since their arrival.

McLaughlin also plans to run a second horse, Elnaawi, in the Al Maktoum Challenge and has two expected entrants for the Group 3, $200,000 Firebreak Stakes on Thursday at about one mile on dirt: Confrontation and Watershed. Among the horses set for the Firebreak as of Monday is Mubtaahij, the 2015 UAE Derby winner who last was seen finishing fourth in the Belmont Stakes.

The Thursday program, with six Thoroughbred races and one Arabian race, should be the strongest card so far during the World Cup Carnival, which began in early January. The card starts with a turf-sprint handicap that could include Ertijaal, a course and distance winner early in the meet, and features a third group race, the Group 2 Cape Verdi over about one mile on turf, though that race will go with a short field.