Frosted, other McLaughlin horses arrive in Dubai

Five Godolphin-owned horses trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, including Grade 1 winner Frosted, arrived Sunday in Dubai after shipping from the U.S., and four of them, Frosted among them, are scheduled to race Feb. 4 at Meydan.

McLaughlin also now trains Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint runner-up Lady Shipman, who will ship for the Grade 1 Al Quoz on the Dubai World Cup card closer to the March 26 race, McLaughlin said.

The horses are stabled in isolation at Godolphin’s Marmoom Stables – where trainer Charlie Appleby’s string is housed – several miles from the city center of Dubai.

“It’s possible they could breeze at Meydan, but it’s most likely they’ll do all their training [at Marmoom] and van into race,” said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin’s brother Neal and a couple of other stable staff are overseeing the small McLaughlin string. McLaughlin, who trained in Dubai before opening his own stable in North America, travels to Dubai this weekend and will be there to saddle his stock in the Feb. 4 races.

Frosted and the McLaughlin-trained Elnaawi start in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2. “We’ll see after that if he needs to run in the third leg of the Maktoum Challenge or go straight to the World Cup,” said McLaughlin, who won the 2007 World Cup at Nad Al Sheba with Invasor.

Frosted most recently raced in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, running below his best form and finishing seventh.

McLaughlin said he has two horses, Watershed and Confrontation, to run Feb. 4 in the Firebreak Stakes over about one mile on dirt. Confrontation, previously trained by Barclay Tagg, makes his first start for Godolphin after being privately purchased. The fifth horse who shipped last weekend is Marking, who runs Feb. 11 at Meydan in a dirt sprint.

World Cup card nominations out

California Chrome, who will try go one better than his second-place finish last year in the $10 million Dubai World Cup, tops the list of horses nominated to the World Cup card stakes which was released Wednesday by the Dubai Racing Club.

Other prominent American dirt horses nominated to the World Cup include Dortmund and Hoppertunity from the Bob Baffert barn, with Hoppertunity more likely to actually ship than Dortmund; Keen Ice, the Travers Stakes winner; Effinex, the Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up and the Clark Handicap winner; Frosted, and Imperative. The Japanese star Maurice is among the nominees, as is Mubtaahij, who ran decently in two legs of the 2015 Triple Crown after a sharp Meydan win in the UAE Derby.

The list of nominees for the $6 million Sheema Classic includes Flintshire, Highland Reel, Postponed, and Eclipse Award finalist The Pizza Man.

Solow definitively won the $6 million Dubai Turf last year and tops the list of this year’s nominees. Mshawish, third in the 2015 Dubai Turf, also is among the nominees and also has been nominated to the World Cup.

The list of U.S.-based nominees for the Golden Shaheen, at about six furlongs on dirt, is somewhat surprisingly light, with 2015 champion sprinter Runhappy not among the nominees.