Punjabi outdueled Celestial Halo and Binocular to win a thrilling renewal of the $510,000 Champion Hurdle on opening day of Cheltenham's National Hunt Festival on Tuesday.
Forgotten in the betting at 22-1, Punjabi, a 6-year-old son of the Nureyev stallion Komaite, prevailed by a neck from the 8-1 Celestial Halo, who finished a head in front of the 3-2 favorite, Binocular.
Asiatic Boy returned to winning ways at Nad Al Sheba Thursday night with a convincing score in Round 3 of the Group 2, $300,000 Maktoum Challenge. The runner-up to Curlin in last year's Dubai World Cup, he will head into this year's edition of the world's richest race as the most accomplished of the locally trained challengers.
Nad Al Sheba's Super Thursday, aka Dubai World Cup Preview Night, features course-and-distance preps for all six of the big races on the March 28 World Cup card, but it will be not quite as super as expected because of the absence of the Godolphin-owned Eclipse Award 2-year-old champion Midshipman, and the stable's leading World Cup hope, My Indy.
Still, Thursday's eight-race, $1.4 million program is loaded with potential World Cup Night winners, with the Group 2, $250,000 Jebel Hatta, a trial for the Dubai Duty Free, especially intriguing.
Owner George Strawbridge will start the European racing season with double-barreled hopes for the classics. Already the owner of the European juvenile filly champion, Rainbow View, he has, according to the Racing Post, purchased Fantasia, a Sadler's Wells filly who finished second to Rainbow View in the Group 1 Fillies Mile at Ascot last September.
Archipenko, absent from the races since his unlucky second in the Arlington Million on Aug. 9, preps for his date in the Dubai Duty Free in the Group 3, $200,000 Zabeel Mile at Nad Al Sheba on Thursday night. The eight-race, $1.37 million card will also include the appearance of South African sprint champ J J the Jet Plane in the Al Quoz Sprint and UAE 1000 Guineas winner So Shiny in the UAE Oaks.
Viva Pataca had to work hard for his victory in the $1 million Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday. Sent off as the 3-10 favorite, the John Moore trainee took a narrow lead over Packing Winner approaching the eighth-pole and maintained it to the line under Darren Beadman, prevailing by a neck while getting the 1 1/4 miles on a good turf course in a tepid 2:04.61. The Dubai Sheema Classic is under consideration for Viva Pataca but owner Stanley Ho expressed reservations about making the journey.
Success Brocken turned the tables on Casino Drive and Kane Hekili at Tokyo on Sunday as he outdueled them in the $1.95 million February Stakes. The 19-1 winner, however, will not proceed to Dubai for the World Cup, and neither will Kane Hekili. On the other hand, Casino Drive will be sent to Nad Al Sheba for a tilt at the world's richest race on March 28.