Hard-punching Country Grammer defends title in Dubai World Cup
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – He has nothing like the charisma and following of California Chrome, who won the 2016 Dubai World Cup. Victory here Saturday night in the World Cup hardly seems foreordained, as when Curlin won by 7 3/4 lengths in 2008. And he lacks the brilliance and power of Arrogate, who flubbed the start and still flew past a future champion, Gun Runner, winning memorably in 2017.
This horse is more like the piston in a truck engine, relentlessly pounding up and down, pushing forward until he has worn down the competition. But don’t call him blue collar. If Country Grammer does something Saturday none of those more memorable predecessors did, win a second Dubai World Cup, the $7.2 million winner’s share of a $12 million purse will raise his career earnings just shy of $22 million, more than any Thoroughbred.
And if Country Grammer tastes defeat, he’s going down swinging.
“What he lacks in pure brilliance he’s got in pure guts,” said Frankie Dettori. Dettori has won four World Cups himself, including the 2022 renewal, when he rode Country Grammer for the first time. This will be his last mount in Dubai if, as he has said, he retires at the end of the year. “I don’t think I’ve ridden a horse in races like this that does what he does. Usually, they get the kickback in their faces and go backwards. He goes forward. He’ll take it for 15 rounds like Joe Frazier or Muhammed Ali.”
If Country Grammer is fixing for a fight, eight Japan-based horses are ready to give it to him. That octet includes Panthalassa, who held off Country Grammer by three-quarters of a length last month winning the $20 million Saudi Cup. Panthalassa’s earnings also stand at more than $14 million, and he also would surpass Orfevre as racing’s richest horse with a Saturday win.
Fifteen were entered in the 27th World Cup, contested over 2,000 meters, or about 1 1/4 miles, on the main track at massive Meydan Racecourse. It’s the last of eight Thoroughbred races, including five Group 1s, with post time for the feature set at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. That’s 8:30 p.m. in Dubai on what’s forecast to be a perfect night weather-wise.
Run around two turns, the World Cup begins about 50 yards in front of the eighth pole, the finish line coming just before the clubhouse turn. At times through the years, this surface has carried speed, but that’s not consistently been the case this season. A year ago, the relatively glib, kind track found during morning training the week of the race gave way to a deep, laboring surface on race night. Country Grammer’s winning time of 2:04.97 was the slowest dirt World Cup ever.
The slog played to the street-brawling style of Country Grammer, a 6-year-old trained by Bob Baffert who’s easily the best offspring of his sire, Tonalist. Owned by Commonwealth Thoroughbreds, WinStar Farm, and Zedan Racing, Country Grammer came into the 2022 World Cup following a second-place finish in the $20 million Saudi Cup. After spinning his wheels into the homestretch of this year’s Saudi renewal, Country Grammer found late stride and finished fastest, second again. The one-turn, nine-furlong configuration of that race doesn’t suit Country Grammer nearly as well as the World Cup.
“At the quarter pole in Saudi, I said, ‘If we get a check here, it’ll be something.’ I had seven or eight horses in front of me,” Dettori said. “He’s got super-horse lungs. A mile and a quarter we know he likes, and he can ship. Fingers crossed, we just need a bit of luck on the day.”
Country Grammer had little luck at the post-position draw, landing post 14. He lacks the speed to make the lead and given his minimal turn of foot can’t afford to fall too far behind. Dettori will need to work some magic finding a good spot.
Country Grammer’s tough draw lengthened his odds with British bookmakers and turned Algiers into a strong second choice as of Thursday.
Six-year-old Algiers never has started in a Group or Grade 1 race and has earnings of about $625,000, but he has been the dirt star of Dubai this winter, scoring smashing wins in Rounds 1 and 2 of the al Maktoum Challenge. Algiers, by Shamardal, made his first 12 starts on turf for trainer André Fabre in France, but was reborn as a dirt runner last winter after being purchased and moved to co-trainers Simon and Ed Crisford. The last half-year has been organized around hopes Algiers could be good enough for the World Cup. He comes in fresh, having last started Feb. 3, and had a solid final World Cup breeze Monday under race rider James Doyle. From post 13, he can get the same kind of outside stalking trip as in his last two races.
“We’re getting the feeling he’s going to go into the race to represent himself very well,” Simon Crisford said.
Panthalassa needs the lead to show his best and will be sent from post 15. Before the Saudi Cup, he’d raced just once on dirt, finishing 11th in an ungraded race in December 2020, but Panthalassa missed the break that day and, failing to get to the front, stopped trying. Four of Panthalassa’s seven wins have come over 1 1/4 miles, albeit on turf, and it’s not out of the question he makes a clear, comfortable lead.
Super Corinto, an Argentine-bred Chilean Grade 1 winner over 11 furlongs on dirt who made his last two starts in Gulfstream Park allowance company, looks overmatched but might show some speed. Japan-based Crown Pride contested a furious pace before fading to 13th in the 2022 Kentucky Derby but was ridden from a stalking position on the way to a fifth-place Saudi Cup finish.
Cafe Pharoah (third), Geoglyph (fourth), and Jun Light Bolt (seventh) gave Japanese runners five of the top seven placings in the Saudi Cup, but a wire-to-wire World Cup win for Panthalassa seems the best hope among that group.
Vela Azul, Ushba Tesoro, and T O Keynes came here directly from Japan. Six-year-old Ushba Tesoro is 6-5-1-0 since being switched from turf to dirt and won the 1 1/4-mile Tokyo Daishoten on Dec. 29 over lesser competition at Oi Racecourse, a National Racing Association track that’s not part of the more formidable Japan Racing Association circuit. Ushba Tesoro got a perfect trip beating T O Keynes by a half-length on Feb. 1 at Kawasaki, another NRA track, and T O Keynes doesn’t seem quite the same horse he was during his 2021 peak. Vela Azul won Japan’s biggest race, the Japan Cup over 1 1/2 miles on turf last November and is a live longshot. A former dirt horse who needed time to fully recover from early-career injuries, Vela Azul has trained with aplomb this week.
Emblem Road won the 2022 Saudi Cup but was just sixth in this year’s renewal and has done all his best work at home in Saudi Arabia. Dubai-based Salute the Soldier, Bendoog, and Remorse lack the quality to contend.
With Country Grammer, it’s not merely about quality but force of will. That just might be enough to make him the second repeat winner of the Dubai World Cup.
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