Mendelssohn beyond impressive in winning UAE Derby

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Aidan O’Brien said before the UAE Derby that Mendelssohn is the horse best suited to the Kentucky Derby that he’s ever trained. He’s surely not saying anything different now.

Mendelssohn made his dirt debut in the Grade 2, $2 million UAE Derby and won almost from Dubai to Kentucky.

And Kentucky, all being well, is where Mendelssohn is headed as an intriguing horse for the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Sent hard to the lead by Ryan Moore on a Meydan dirt track once again carrying speed, Mendelssohn rolled down the backstretch in front, cruised around the far turn still in control, and then really started his show in the homestretch. Turning for home a few lengths in front of the filly Rayya, Mendelssohn bumped his lead to five lengths, then 10, 12, and 15, and he crossed the finish 18 3/4 lengths in front of Rayya, stopping the timer in 1:55.18 for 1,800 meters, about 1 3/16 miles. The time was a dirt-track record and was 2.27 seconds quicker than the next-fastest UAE Derby since Meydan went to dirt in 2015.

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Even accounting for a track bias, the performance seemed exceptional. Reride, a decent if not elite American colt in his own right, was beaten more than 20 lengths.

“Ryan was always in a different race than the rest of us,” said Pat Dobbs, who rode Rayya.

The highly regarded Gold Town, whose connections had Kentucky Derby aspirations, finished a distant fourth.

“We had a good position and moved up to the winner around the final turn, but I just wasn’t good enough,” said Gold Town’s jockey, William Buick.

The UAE Derby is a major qualifying race for the Kentucky Derby, but only Mendelssohn, who got 100 points, is likely to start. Rayya got 40 points, but while the filly is headed to the U.S. to be trained by Bob Baffert, her connections have the Kentucky Oaks as a goal.

Is Mendelssohn good enough to run with the best American dirt horses? That’s a question that will be asked regularly the next five weeks. “Yes,” does not appear to be out of the question. Mendelssohn is by Scat Daddy and out of Leslie’s Lady, the dam of dirt champion Beholder. He has enough quality to have finished second in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes last fall before winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, and before coming to Dubai, he got in a tightener, winning an all-weather stakes at Dundalk in Ireland.

“He’s got the pedigree, and he’s got the instinct to perform,” Moore said. “He’s a very exciting horse. Obviously, the next time it’s going to be a little different. I still feel that he will get better.”

O’Brien likes to send his horses late in the game to major races, and the Derby, in which O’Brien has run five horses, his best finish a fifth, will be no different. O’Brien said he’ll ship Mendelssohn as late as possible to Churchill Downs, and Mendelssohn will do all his major work for the race at Ballydoyle, O’Brien’s stables in Ireland.

Americans will get only a few days to see firsthand how this colt looks in the lead-up to America’s biggest race, and to decide whether he could actually win the thing.

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