Magic Lily seeks return to form in Cape Verdi

What is the shelf life of a promising performance from a young horse?

It’s been a good long while – two years and about three months, to get more specific – since Magic Lily showed plenty of promise, finishing third to the multiple Group 1-winner Laurens in the Group 1 Fillies' Mile at Newmarket.

Magic Lily ran so well that day she came home one place ahead of Magical, who went on to become one of the best racehorses – male or female – in Europe. She also didn’t run again for the better part of two years, and just where Magic Lily’s current form stands is uncertain as she makes her Dubai debut on Thursday night at Meydan in the Group 2, $250,000 Cape Verdi Stakes.

Magic Lily is among eight entrants in the Cape Verdi, a one-turn, 1,600-meter grass race that lacks a standout. Charlie Appleby trains her for Godolphin and James Doyle has the mount Thursday in the fourth of six races on the card.

Magic Lily finally made it back to the races this past fall, but her two-race form cycle failed to produce a clear picture. Racing over very soft ground at Saint-Cloud she managed a second of 10 in the listed Prix Dahlia over about 1 ¼ miles before checking in a tame sixth of 14 in the listed Fillies Stakes, another 1 ¼-mile race, this one over the all-weather track at Lingfield.

That is not the sort of form typical of a Cape Verdi victress, since the race, won by Godolphin six of the last seven years, has yielded such high-level winners as Poetic Charm, Very Special, Certify, and Sajjhaa, but it might suffice in this renewal.

Others at the top of the ratings (Magic Lily sits at 100) are Surrounding (105) and Nisreen (104), both of whom lack much upside at fairly advanced racehorse age. Dubai Blue, a Godolphin runner trained by Saeed bin Suroor, does have untapped potential but would hold more appeal had her best European races not come on all-weather surfaces.

Also set to race Thursday is Dream Castle, a 6-year-old bin Suroor-trained, Godolphin-owned gelding whose three-race Meydan turf winning streak last year peaked with a victory in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta Stakes. Dream Castle hasn’t come close in five starts since but could easily appreciate a return to the Meydan grass when he starts as the top-rated runner in the listed $175,000 Zabeel Turf.