Unbeaten 'TDN Rising Star' Polar River (Congrats) is doubtless one of the hottest favourites on the world's richest card of racing, and the 3-year-old filly will be looking to extend her unbeaten record to five while facing males for the first time in the G2 UAE Derby. The bay won her maiden, the Guineas trial and the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas itself by a combined margin of 31 1/4 lengths, but she gave her legion of fans a scare in the G3 UAE Oaks Mar. 3, finishing just 1 3/4 lengths ahead of a fast-finishing Vale Dori (Arg) (Asiatic Boy {Arg}) in a field of three. Trainer Doug Watson shed some light on that performance this week, saying, “it's hard to go off the Oaks win with three runners and not much pace–it basically turned into a three or four furlong sprint. But she's had a really good three weeks since that and we expect her to run well. Obviously you have Mike's horse [Vale Dori] who ran well last time and the American horse, Frank Conversation, is a big, good-looking horse. If she runs her race she should be there.”
“She's been exciting to have in the yard, a fun horse to train who does everything right,” Watson added. “Her races have been visually impressive.”
Paul Reddam's Frank Conversation (Quality Road) comes into this off a pair of Golden Gates stakes wins–the 1 1/16-mile California Derby Jan. 16 and the 1 1/8-mile El Camino Real Derby Feb. 13–and Leandro Mora, assistant to trainer Doug O'Neill, said he has been pleased with the colt's condition since arriving in Dubai.
“He eats and sleeps well and he cleans up whatever we feed him,” Mora said. “He's a happy horse. I'm very pleased.”
Mora said tactics from the inside post will be left up to jockey Mario Gutierrez.
“He got number one–I didn't expect it,” Mora said. “Knowing now that the one is very close to the first turn, I'm kind of happy for that. We just need to figure out how Mario will handle it, but it's really up to him.”
Japan throws three GI Kentucky Derby aspirants in here: the American-bred Lani (Tapit) and the Hideyuki Mori-trained pair of Yu Change (Jpn) (Swift Current {Jpn}) and On The Rocks (Jpn) (Samurai Heart {Jpn}). Lani won two of his four juvenile outings but was fifth on seasonal debut in Tokyo's one-mile Hyacinth S. Feb. 21. Yu Change and On The Rocks both seek their first wins since last fall, but Mori–who 26 years ago became the first and only Japanese trainer to start a horse in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 14th with Ski Captain (Jpn)–said that if either of his horses win, they will run for the roses on the first Saturday in May.
“If we win, we are going to Kentucky,” he said Thursday.
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