Japan, Yahagi continue dominance, winning first two Thoroughbred races on World Cup card

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- The 2022 Dubai World Cup started off with a bomb as impossible longshot Bathrat Leon led all the way in the Group 2, $1 million Godolphin Mile.

Stay Foolish was a much more logical of the card’s second race, the Group 2, $1 million Gold Cup at two miles, but what almost defies logic is all the international races Japan-based horses have generally been winning over the last five months and, specifically, those trained by Yoshito Yahagi.

Yahagi trains both Bathrat Leon, a 60-1 shot, and Stay Foolish, a brave 6-1 winner over odds-on favorite Manobo in the Gold Cup, a two-mile turf race.

Yahagi won the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Distaff with 50-1 shot Marche Lorraine and also trains Loves Only You, who captured the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the Hong Kong Cup to close her career last fall. Stay Foolish won the Red Sea Turf last month in Saudi Arabia.

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Christophe Lemaire gave Stay Foolish a perfect trip, snugging him along the fence just behind pacesetter Volcanic Sky and finding room to come off the rail when Veloce Oro, racing two paths wide in second, tired in upper stretch. Manobo, who was 1-5 in international pools, had made a strong wide run off the far turn and looked like he might draw clear at the 300-meter mark. But after Manobo got about a neck in front with 200 meters to run, Stay Foolish and Lemaire hit their best stride, coming inside Manobo and pushing clear in the final 50 yards to win by a half-length. Al Madhar, a 39-1 shot, finished third with Alignak fourth at 57-1.

Seven-year-old Stay Foolish had lost 25 races in a row before winning the Red Sea last month in Saudi Arabia. His two-race winning streak has coincided with a move out to staying trips, as Stay Foolish ($14.20) clocked 3:19.65 over heavily watered turf officially labeled “good.” A homebred, Stay Foolish is owned by Shadai Race Horse Co. He’s by Stay Gold out of Kauai Lane, out of King Kamehameha.

In the Godolphin Mile, jockey Ryusei Sakai got his mount onto an early lead in this one-turn dirt contest and no one really got close. Desert Wisdom, who raced near the inside and just behind the pace, tried to make a run at the winner but was beaten 1 1/4 lengths. Storm Damage finished third while the two American runners, Bankit and Snapper Sinclair, were sixth and 10th, respectively. Al Nefud, favored in international parimutuel pools, never came close to contention and checked in last of 16.

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Bathrat Leon clocked 1:36.03 over a fast surface, a fairly standard time for the Godolphin Mile, though his win price, $123.70, was far from standard. The odds were were understandable. Bathrat Leon came into the Godolphin Mile having finished between ninth and 15th in his last five starts, four of them at the Group 2 or Group 3 level. He had finished 13th in his lone dirt try last January in a race won by Soliste Thunder, who was fourth in the Godolphin Mile.

Bathrat Leon is a 4-year-old son of Kizuna out of Bathrat Amal, by New Approach.