Senor Buscador can become the first horse to win the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup. Ushba Tesoro can become the second horse to win two renewals of the Dubai World Cup. And the mere fact that a horse named Kabirkhan has any chance at all in the World Cup is almost unbelievable. That trio accounts for one-quarter of a 12-horse field set to contest the Group 1, $12 million World Cup, a 1 1/4-mile dirt race that came up stronger, top to bottom, than many recent renewals. Derma Sotogake, second in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and likely pacesetter Laurel River also rate as key players, and just how much early speed shows up will go a long way toward determining the chances of Senor Buscador and Ushba Tesoro. Both horses are deep closers, and Ushba Tesoro passed all 14 of his foes on the way to a 2 3/4-length victory in the 2023 World Cup. No doubt, his performance was stirring, but second-place Algiers doesn’t class up to the top competition this year. To follow Thunder Snow (2018 and 2019) as the second two-time World Cup winner, Ushba Tesoro might need to hit a higher mark. Seven-year-old Ushba Tesoro actually got first run on Senor Buscador in the Feb. 24 Saudi Cup, taking the lead in the final furlong, only to be nabbed on the wire by Senor Buscador, who came rolling down the outside. Strategy is simple for this burly son of Orfevre, whose steady run at Santa Anita last fall only was good enough for a fifth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. “The gate doesn’t matter for him as he will race from behind anyway,” trainer Noboru Takagi said. “He has recovered well from the Saudi Cup and is in good form.” Senor Buscador, a 6-year-old trained by Todd Fincher, has been in peak form since finishing seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was second, racing against a powerful speed bias, in the Cigar Mile, then just missed running down National Treasure in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup. In the Cigar, Senor Buscador rallied from last of 12; in the Pegasus, he was 11th of 12 in the early stages; and in the Saudi Cup, Senor Buscador fell so far off the pace that the track announcer didn’t see him down the backstretch. “He couldn’t be doing any better,” Joe Peacock said this week on a video from Meydan posted by Blood-Horse. Peacock co-bred Senor Buscador with his late father and owns the horse, though Saudi Arabian Mohammed Al Hariri paid for the right to have Senor Buscador wear his silks in the Saudi Cup and the World Cup. “He goes straight to the back of the pack and gets comfortable, and when he decides to run, he starts running. It’s just a matter of how many can we catch.” Junior Alvarado began riding Senor Buscador three starts ago and has proven a perfect fit. But the Saudi Cup was a perfect fit for Senor Buscador, whose best race comes around one turn and between one mile and 1 1/8 miles. In two-turn 1 1/4-mile races like the World Cup, he has finished seventh, fourth, and fifth. Kabirkhan is the great unknown, though he clearly possesses high-level ability. There appears to exist no readily available formal record of Kabirkhan’s first three races. All came in Kazakhstan, the home of Kabirkhan’s owner, Tlek Mukanbetkaliyev, who purchased the colt following his debut win over two rivals at Hippodrome Almaty in southern Kazakhastan, not far from the Kyrgyzstan border. Video of Kabirkhan’s debut shows the colt, a dead ringer for his sire, California Chrome, splashing through puddles on a dirt oval with no outside rail. Kabirkhan went on to make five starts in Russia before winding up in the Dubai yard of veteran trainer Doug Watson, who calls Kabirkhan the best 1 1/4-mile horse he has trained. Kabirkhan cruised to a 4 3/4-length win Jan. 26 in Round 1 of the Al Maktoum Challenge, and Watson elected to train the colt into the World Cup. Video of his major workouts for the race offers ample encouragement. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Jockey Pat Dobbs “came back after his second-to-last piece of work saying this horse could compete in the sprint or the mile also,” Watson said. “He’s a horse that does everything you want at home and on the racetrack.” Dobbs will break Kabirkhan from post 2 and establish a stalking position behind the speed. Derma Sotogake could pull a similar trip under Christophe Lemaire but from a better draw, post 8, and this 4-year-old stands a serious chance of a minor upset. A 5 1/2-length winner of the 2023 UAE Derby on the World Cup card, Derma Sotogake was a somewhat disappointing sixth in the Kentucky Derby and subsequently went unraced until the BC Classic. There, Derma Sotogake beat 10 rivals while losing by one length to razor-sharp White Abbario, a performance perhaps good enough to win Saturday. Derma Sotogake had a winter setback in Japan that cost him training toward the Saudi Cup, then injured his eye during the flight to Saudi Arabia, where he finished an even fifth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths. Having shaken off rust while not running his best, Derma Sotogake should be set to peak. Laurel River won the seven-furlong Pat O’Brien Stakes in August 2022 while trained by Bob Baffert but didn’t race again until the Al Shindagha Sprint on Jan. 26, when he was a tame seventh in his first start for trainer Bhupat Seemar. The March 2 Burj Nahaar, a one-turn mile, showcased an entirely different animal, as Laurel River, racing with blinkers added, took command after about a furlong and cruised to a 6 3/4-length victory. “We think the best is still to come with him,” Seemar said. “There’s a lot about whether he will stay or not, but me and my jockey [Tadhg O’Shea] feel that he will not just stay but will be even better over this trip.” A Juddmonte Farms homebred, Laurel River is by Into Mischief out of the Empire Maker mare Calm Water. If left alone in front, he might have the lead in midstretch though it’s difficult imagining Laurel River holding onto it. Even less likely are the two American shippers, Crupi and Newgate. The latter, trained by four-time World Cup winner Baffert, exits a win in the Santa Anita Handicap and has the stronger résumé of the pair, though Crupi, another closer, is Newgate’s equal on Beyer Speed Figures. Clapton is trained by Chad Summers, who saddled Mind Your Biscuits to consecutive wins in the Dubai Golden Shaheen. Clapton has spent the winter in Dubai, but his third-place finish last month behind fellow World Cup runner Military Law, a 9-year-old nowhere near Group 1 class, does not offer much hope. Defunded comes from Saudi Arabia with little chance, while two lesser Japanese horses, Dura Erede and Wilson Tesoro, round out the field. The World Cup is the last of nine races, eight for Thoroughbreds, on a card that starts at 7:30 a.m. Eastern. The World Cup goes at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, 8:30 p.m. in Dubai, where the post time temperature is forecast to be 80 degrees. That’s relatively cool by local standards. The big race is hot. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.