Almond Eye-ing up Arc after impressing in Dubai

Last weekend signalled the traditional, and rather quiet, start of the Flat turf season at Doncaster. Godolphin won the Lincoln with Auxerre who looks a cut above handicaps in future, while on the same day his owners were also firing some of their big guns thousands of miles away in Dubai. Indeed, it was events in the desert, more so than those on Town Moor, which really whet the appetite for the forthcoming Flat season.

There’s a myth that Dubai is something of a law unto itself where form is concerned, and that performances recorded there are not replicated elsewhere later in the year. Some horses do have their campaigns built exclusively around the Dubai Carnival and its culmination on World Cup night, but plenty of others frank their Dubai form or even build on it. Last year, for example, a couple of Godolphin’s winners on the World Cup card, Benbatl and Jungle Cat, went on to Group 1 success in Australia later in the season, as did Best Solution, fifth in the Sheema Classic, who, like Benbatl, was also successful in Group 1 company in Europe during the summer. The future Prince of Wales’s Stakes and King George winner Poet’s Word was runner-up in the Sheema Classic (he turned the tables on the winner Hawkbill at Royal Ascot), while third was Cloth of Stars who went on to fill the same position behind Enable in the Arc.

The winner of the Dubai World Cup itself last weekend, Thunder Snow, the first horse to win the race twice, is one horse who Godolphin almost certainly won’t be campaigning in Europe in the coming months. He finished last in the Juddmonte International on his only turf start last year, and the priority for him now, according to his trainer Saeed bin Suroor, is to win a Grade 1 on dirt in America, something he went closest to doing last year when beaten a neck in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont.

Besides, Godolphin have other stars primed for the top turf contests in Europe at a range of distances if other results from Meydan are anything to go by. Blue Point had to miss last year’s Al Quoz Sprint when withdrawn at the start, but he landed the odds in good style in that contest this time, running right up to the form that had seen him beat Battaash and Mabs Cross in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot last year. It was almost certainly the best renewal to date of the World Cup card’s Group 1 turf sprint, with the likes of dual Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Stormy Liberal back in third and Champions Sprint Stakes winner Sands of Mali sixth.

At the other end of the distance scale, Godolphin’s Melbourne Cup hero Cross Counter made a successful return to action for Charlie Appleby in the Dubai Gold Cup. With the Ascot Gold Cup as his summer target, he seems sure to cross swords at some stage with last season’s leading older stayer Stradivarius. Cross Counter has already thrown down a challenge to John Gosden’s stayer as the Dubai Gold Cup is the first qualifying race in the expanded Stayers’ Million series, the inaugural version of which Stradivarius won last year, earning a million-pound bonus.

Cross Counter wins the Dubai Gold Cup in an exciting finish with both Godolphin runners finish 1 & 2! pic.twitter.com/iSMPdQPTkX

— TVG (@TVG) 30 March 2019

Godolphin look to have a very smart understudy to Cross Counter in the top staying races in the form of Ispolini who was beaten just over a length behind him in the Dubai Gold Cup. Ispolini ran only three times as a three-year-old last season, without winning, but he has clearly thrived in Dubai over the winter and looks well up to winning a good staying race in Europe.

With the possibility of St Leger winner Kew Gardens stepping up in trip this year, the staying division could be a particularly hot one. Cross Counter and Kew Gardens met last season when both were placed in what has proven to be a high-class Great Voltigeur at York behind Cross Counter’s stablemate Old Persian. He didn’t stay in the St Leger, but Old Persian is another who has improved from three to four as he showed when the third Godolphin winner for Appleby and jockey William Buick on World Cup night in the Dubai Sheema Classic.

Old Persian (127 from 124)
Cross Counter (124)

Last year’s Great Voltigeur Stakes has turned out to be some race.
All the top mile and a half races are likely to be under consideration for Old Persian in the months ahead.pic.twitter.com/Q3KaFOnQax

— Timeform (@Timeform) 1 April 2019

Showing a good turn of foot to put the race to bed, the form looks solid behind Old Persian as the two others who pulled well clear of the rest were the Japanese Group 1 winners Cheval Grand and Suave Richard, the first-named a former Japan Cup winner. Old Persian has the makings of a flagship horse for Godolphin in the top middle-distance contests, perhaps starting with the Coronation Cup at Epsom which could also see the return of Enable as she sets out on a campaign aimed at securing a record third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Another who has the Arc as a long-range target is last year’s Derby winner Masar. He too has been in Dubai over the winter, though has been confined to the treadmill, rather than the racetrack, as he continues his recovery from the injury which has kept him off the course since Epsom. Charlie Appleby reports that he won’t be back until Royal Ascot at the earliest, but that ‘all the signs are very positive.’

While the Japanese challenge was thwarted in the Sheema Classic, it was successful for the fourth time in the last six runnings of the nine-furlong Dubai Turf, a race where Japanese-trained fillies and mares took three of the first four places. This race too threw up a potentially high-class rival to Enable further down the line when Japan Cup winner Almond Eye enhanced her growing reputation with a most impressive performance on her first start outside her native country. Like Old Persian, Almond Eye had her race sewn up with a turn of foot in the penultimate furlong, with her compatriot Vivlos, the 2017 winner, following her home.

Enable, Sea Of Class, Almond Eye - if they all turn up for the Arc, which one would you fancy? #TheVerdict pic.twitter.com/LUHCu93STN

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) 1 April 2019

Unbeaten in six starts since finishing second on her debut, Almond Eye looks Japan’s strongest Arc candidate for several seasons, the fact that she’d have a jockey familiar with Longchamp – Christophe Lemaire is her regular partner – only adding to her appeal. Japan’s recent Arc challengers have used the traditional French trials as prep races, but there’s the intriguing possibility of Almond Eye making her European debut at York instead in the summer. Watch out Enable!