Hunter’s Light, a Group 1 winner in Dubai and Italy who was seventh in the 2014 Arlington Million at Arlington Park, leads a field of 10 in Thursday’s $200,000 Dubai Millennium Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Dirt milers were at the center of the action Thursday night at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, and the 3-year-olds in the Group 3, $250,000 UAE 2000 Guineas might have upstaged their elders in the Group 3, $200,000 Firebreak Stakes.
There are several rich races with tendrils climbing toward the March 28 Dubai World Cup program on the seven-race card Thursday night at Meydan, but only one of them includes a horse with a chance of making it to North America this spring.
Frankyfourfingers never had won a race of note when the Dubai World Cup Carnival began in January, and his trainer, Salem bin Ghadayer, never had won a race, period. But Thursday at Meydan, the pair teamed up to capture the Group 2, $250,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2, a breakthrough for both horse and trainer.
When African Story last raced, he won the $10 million Dubai World Cup, but when he steps out onto the racetrack Thursday night at Meydan for his first start since March, there will be one very serious difference: The surface beneath African Story’s feet will be dirt.
Vercingetorix, away since April, returned to the races with a two-length win over True Story in the Group 2, $200,000 Al Rashidiya Stakes on Thursday night at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. The comeback run suggests that the South African-bred could be a force in the more important middle-distance turf races in February and March.
There are some familiar names — and very good horses - on the Thursday card at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, with Vercingetorix’s appearance in the Group 2, $200,000 Al Rashidiya Stakes highlighting the action.
Bayern, Toast of New York, California Chrome, and Shared Belief - the first four finishers of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 1 - are among 296 horses from 15 countries nominated for the $10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates.
A sharp winner of a turf handicap on Jan. 8 at Meydan in Dubai, Safety Check improved on that form Thursday and won the Group 2, $250,000 Al Fahidi Fort by four lengths.
Ace South African trainer Mike de Kock has a three-headed monster ready to attack Thursday night at Meydan in the featured sixth race, the Group 2, $250,000 Al Fahidi Fort over about seven furlongs on turf.
