Dubai World Cup

Mick Appleby will bid to begin the new year with a bang when stable star Raasel lines out in the Dubai Dash at Meydan. Appleby will run four horses in total at Meydan over the coming weeks and months, all of whom cost just over £60,000 combined, which illustrates the Northern England-based trainer's ability to sniff out a bargain at the sales.    In this week's Starfield Stud-sponsored Conversations Q&A, Appleby discusses his approach to sourcing talent, speaks out on the poor prize-money in Britain and how difficult it is...

Michael O'Callaghan is eyeing big-race riches in Dubai with half-brothers I Am Superman (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) and Fastnet Crown (Ire) (Hallowed Crown {Aus}) before making the move to a new purpose-built yard near the Curragh ahead of the turf season proper.  However, the leading Irish trainer has said that he remains in the dark over his position with Amo Racing despite sending out Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}) to secure G2 Beresford S. glory for Kia Joorabchian's major ownership vehicle at the Curragh last season.  Crypto Force joined the...

Nominations are now open for the 2023 edition of the Dubai World Cup meeting, set for Saturday, Mar. 25 at Meydan Racecourse. Celebrating its 27th anniversary this year, the Dubai World Cup will offer $30.5 million in purses across eight stakes races. In addition to the $6-million 2000-metre main event, supporting races include the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic at 2400 metres; the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen set at 1200 metres on dirt; the G1 Al Quoz Sprint over 1200 metres on turf; the 3200-metre G2 Dubai Gold Cup on...

Jared Shoemaker, co-managing partner of Pocket Aces Racing, grew up in Lexington and fondly remembers going to Keeneland with his extended family from the time he could walk. It was one of his favorite things to do as a child. By the time he was in high school, he admits to spending a lot of afternoons at the track while supposedly in class. Not one to miss a good day of racing--no matter the reason--he scheduled all of his lectures at the University of Kentucky to be done by noon...

In the end, things work because they work. We try stuff, often if not always with the best intentions, and see whether it gains our trust. Lived experience, among horsemen and fans, will eventually tell us whether an experiment has failed or whether, once every generation or so, we might have struck a game-changing seam of gold. The Breeders' Cup was one such; and, who knows, maybe a similar hostility from vested interests will ultimately prove the furnace in which HISA can be forged into another. That may seem a...

Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), a strong second when last seen in the G1 Dubai World Cup Mar. 26, will begin his road to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in Saturday's GIII Salvator Mile S. on Monmouth Park's inaugural GI TVG.com Haskell S. preview day. He'll face six rivals with Hall of Famer Mike Smith booked to ride. The half-brother to champion Mitole (Eskendereya) returns to the Jersey Shore for the first time since being disqualified from first and placed seventh for interference in a roughly run edition of last year's...

Life Is Good (Into Mischief) and Country Grammer (Tonalist), both multiple Grade I winners co-owned by WinStar Farm, are enjoying a freshening at WinStar's training and rehabilitation facility in Versailles, Ky. before they return to the racetrack for their summer campaigns. Rivals in their last start in the G1 Dubai World Cup, the duo now shares the same daily routine on the farm. After training at 6:30 every morning, they keep company together as they enjoy the grass and sunshine in side-by-side round pens. "Life Is Good and Country Grammer...

Last term's G1 Dubai World Cup hero Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper--Music Note, by A.P. Indy) has been retired to Jonabell Farm, where he will stand the 2023 breeding season, Godolphin announced Thursday. A fee will be announced at a later date. "The decision has been made to retire Mystic Guide due to a soft tissue injury," Dan Pride, COO of Godolphin in America, said. "The timing unfortunately rules out his major summer and fall targets and as a result he will take up stud duties at Jonabell Farm. He proved himself...

There was much cause for Irish celebration at Meydan on Saturday night when A Case Of You (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire}) and Ronan Whelan shot to glory in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint for Ado McGuinness. But a victory that meant just as much for one Irish jockey was that of Switzerland (Speightstown) in the other major sprint on the card, the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, which provided Tadhg O'Shea with his first Group 1 winner at the age of 40. O'Shea has not, however, been devoid of success throughout...

Triple Crown season might be heating up but the well-bred handicap divisions are keen on having a say in how the big stage shapes up. Here's who's been shouting the loudest this week. Stonestreet Gold Again a Rising Star... The famous silks have done it once more, this time with Marsalis (Curlin) adding another 'TDN Rising Star' accolade to GISW Hot Dixie Chick's already impressive tally as a broodmare. Full-brother and New York's Leading Second Crop sire Union Jackson also claimed Rising Stardom in his racing days; while half-sister Pauline's...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- On paper, it was horseracing's version of the 'Dream Team.' Trainer Bob Baffert, a three-time winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, and the charismatic Frankie Dettori, still riding at the peak of his powers into his early 50s, also with three World Cup trophies to his name. Each of those victories was achieved as the retained rider for Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor, but the Italian maestro hadn't hoisted the hardware since Electrocutionist (Red Ransom) took the 2006 renewal at old Nad Al Sheba...

First things first: let's give their chance to the guys off the bench. Okay, so there are going to be plenty of eyeballs rolled now that three of Bob Baffert's four Derby migrants are joining a former assistant, on the same circuit, with a total of 38 starters to his name this year—especially as it was the handling of another Baffert medication violation that reportedly caused the scuffle between this same gentleman and a fellow trainer at Clocker's Corner one morning last April. (Both were fined $500.) The wiseguys will...