Sterling City closed from off the pace to catch Rich Tapestry in the final strides in Saturday’s $2 million Golden Shaheen, giving Hong Kong-based runners a sweep of the first two positions in the valuable sprint at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.
Toast of New York, whose previous claim to fame was a romping $6,400 allowance-race win Nov. 1 over the synthetic surface at Wolverhampton in England, crushed 11 rivals in the UAE Derby on Saturday night in Dubai, winning by 2 1/2 lengths over Asmar.
Amber Sky, a Group 1 winner in Hong Kong in January, proved his status as a world-class turf sprinter with an impressive win in Saturday’s $1 million Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan.
Certerach won the $1 million Dubai Gold Cup on Saturday at Meydan Racecourse in a race that had as much drama after it had ended as it did during the running.
South African export Soft Falling Rain failed to repeat his 2013 win in the $1 million Godolphin Mile, falling a length short of another South African export, Variety Club, in a sharp renewal Saturday at Meydan Racecourse of the one-mile race over Tapeta.
The 5-year-old Japanese mare Straight Girl is in the best form of her career, having won six of her last seven starts. Sunday, Straight Girl will be favored to win her first Grade 1 race in the $1,935,357 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Chukyo Racecourse in Nagoya, Japan.
At $5 million each, the Dubai Duty Free and the Sheema Classic are half as lucrative as the Dubai World Cup, but both races – the Duty Free in particular – drew fields every bit as strong and deep as the main event Saturday night in Dubai.
When post positions were drawn Wednesday for the Dubai World Cup, Ron the Greek had the outside post in a tough 16-runner field. The wide berth hampers Ron the Greek’s chances in a race that has drawn entrants who made their last starts in Dubai, England, Hong Kong, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
Two of the better-known entrants in a Dubai World Cup lacking big names drew bookend post positions when the five Group 1 races on Saturday’s Dubai World Cup card were drawn Wednesday.
Final declarations for the eight Thoroughbred races on Saturday’s Dubai World Cup card were released Monday, and the $10 million World Cup is on track to go with a full field of 16 runners.
