Reride to ship overseas for UAE Derby

The 3-year-old colt Reride finished sixth in his only graded stakes start, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes last fall, and at the moment doesn’t appear to be an elite Kentucky Derby contender, but his connections believe he’ll suit another derby, the $2 million UAE Derby on March 31 at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.

Steve Asmussen, who trains Reride for Winchell Thoroughbreds, said Saturday he planned on shipping Reride to Dubai for his next start. Reride traveled to Sunland Park in New Mexico from Fair Grounds in New Orleans to win his most recent race, the $100,000 Mine That Bird Derby on Feb. 25.

“He ran a very fast race at Sunland,” Asmussen said. “The timing of this race suits him, and he travels well.”

Reride won the Mine That Bird Derby by 2 1/2 lengths over the favored Runaway Ghost, who finished more than 15 lengths clear of the third-place horse. Reride got a career-best 91 Beyer Speed Figure for that performance, which came six weeks after a narrow win in the $60,000 Big Drama Stakes at Delta Downs. Reride, a Winchell homebred by Candy Ride, won his debut last June in a short sprint at Churchill Downs and returned to action in October with a turf-mile win at Keeneland before getting a challenging trip between horses and fading late in the KJC, his final start at age 2.

Reride is scheduled to work Sunday at Fair Grounds and will have one final drill there next week before departing for Florida on March 19 and going on to Dubai the following day. Asmussen said Javier Castellano had been secured as a rider for the UAE Derby.

The top local UAE Derby hope is Gold Town, who won the UAE 2000 Guineas by more than 10 lengths on Feb. 15 but skipped Saturday’s Al Bastakiya Stakes to come into the UAE Derby a fresh horse. The unheralded Yulong Warrior won the Al Bastakiya by more than 11 lengths, taking advantage of Gold Town’s absence as well as an inside-speed-biased racing surface.

Also pointed to the UAE Derby is the Aidan O’Brien-trained Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf hero Mendelssohn, who won his 3-year-old debut Friday in a listed stakes over the all-weather surface at Dundalk Racecourse in Ireland.