DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Eight was enough.
Eight Japanese horses came to Dubai for the 27th World Cup and Ushba Tesoro emerged with the second Japanese victory here following Victoire Pisa in 2011. Victoire Pisa won on the old Tapeta surface at Meydan, and Ushba Tesoro’s was the first for a Japan-based horse in a dirt World Cup.
A race at 1 1/2 miles was a bit too far for I Am the Empire in Australia on March 10. After racing keenly early and still in contention with a furlong to go, I Am the Empire faded late.
Three times since mid-January, the Australian 2-year-old Storm the Ramparts has finished third, each time closing ground to give the impression he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Though winless, Storm the Ramparts has done enough to merit a leading role in the $132,900 Wellington Boot Stakes at 5 1/2 furlongs at Wellington Racecourse on Saturday evening. The colt is part of a field of 14 that could change significantly if Mostro draws into the race from the also-eligible list.
Pixie Knight won the biggest race of his career in the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan in November 2021 in what turned out to be his final completed race that year.
Pixie Knight started a month later in the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, but did not finish after being involved in a four-horse spill.
Pixie Knight, who missed all of 2022, returns to racing in Sunday’s Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at six furlongs on turf at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan, the country’s first Grade 1 race on grass of the year.
Vow and Declare and Gold Trip are respective winners of the 2019 and 2022 Melbourne Cups. They meet for the first time since that race was run in November in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney on Friday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The first 200-point Kentucky Derby qualifying race of 2023 comes on Saturday at Meydan in Dubai, some 7,000 miles from Churchill Downs. The Grade 2, $1 million UAE Derby drew a field of 13, and the first five home earn points, distributed 100-40-30-20-10, toward qualifying for the 20-runner Kentucky Derby.
The UAE Derby is race 5 on the nine-race card, which includes the $12 million Dubai World Cup.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Among the 27 Japan-based horses that have descended upon Dubai to race here Saturday on the World Cup card at Meydan Racecourse, none has looked any better than the 4-year-old colt Equinox. The sleek, near-black bay with white snaking down his forehead galloped with verve on dirt before breezing like Pegasus on turf Wednesday morning.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – He has nothing like the charisma and following of California Chrome, who won the 2016 Dubai World Cup. Victory here Saturday night in the World Cup hardly seems foreordained, as when Curlin won by 7 3/4 lengths in 2008. And he lacks the brilliance and power of Arrogate, who flubbed the start and still flew past a future champion, Gun Runner, winning memorably in 2017.
