Trackside in Dubai Tuesday

by Michele MacDonald

 While American champions California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) and Main Sequence (Aldebaran) delivered their final serious works prior to taking on international challengers on Dubai World Cup night, a bevy of European runners and some of Hong Kong’s brightest stars flexed their muscles at Meydan Mar. 24. 

California Chrome started the morning off by appearing out of the darkness and onto the floodlit dirt track shortly after 5 a.m. with Dana Barnes, who for years has been one of Bob Baffert’s key work riders, in the saddle for the father-son trainer team of Art and Alan Sherman. 

Barnes nudged California Chrome into a jog to warm the colt up and a short while later picked up a gallop followed by more speed in a brief burst down the stretch and past the finish line. California Chrome completed his half-mile task in :50, with his final furlong in :11, and galloped out in the same manner he breezed, with his ears pricked. 

“Oh my God,” Barnes said after her first ride on America’s reigning Horse of the Year, shaking her head and smiling broadly. “It took him a while to warm up, but once he gets going, he’s like being on a cloud.” 

“There was no pressure,” she added with a laugh of her assignment to jump aboard the champion for his tune-up for the richest race on the planet, the $10 million G1 Dubai World Cup sponsored by Emirates. 

“He went great today. I was real happy with it,” Alan Sherman said, beaming and adding that he chose Barnes for the light workout because “She’s been on a lot of great horses,” while riding for Baffert. 

The younger Sherman, who fielded journalists’ questions immediately after the workout while Art Sherman took over as the featured speaker in a press conference later in the morning, said California Chrome seems to be handling Meydan’s new dirt track well. 

“I think he’s coming into the race in great shape,” he said, describing the Dubai World Cup experience as a “dream come true” and stating that he expects jockey Victor Espinoza to have California Chrome forwardly placed in the race. 

A few hours later, Main Sequence charged down the all-weather training track at Meydan, accompanied by his stablemate Quadrivium (Henrythenavigator), in a three-furlong blowout prior to the champion’s start in the $6 million G1 Dubai Sheema Classic on turf and Quadrivium’s date in the $1 million G2 Godolphin Mile on dirt. 

Trainer Graham Motion watched the workout with his wife, Anita, and a crowd of onlookers perched on a hill above the track, and he caught the duo in about :36. 

“It was probably a little more than I would have liked,” Motion said, “But I don’t know how quick this track is playing.” 
Motion added, “I couldn’t be happier,” with how Main Sequence is coming into the Dubai Sheema Classic, but he noted that the nine-horse field is “by far the deepest field he’s had to run in since I’ve had him.” 

Most of Main Sequence’s rivals in the race fanned out across Meydan during the morning. 

Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year Designs on Rome (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) emerged from quarantine for the first time with a jaunt on the main turf course, while Qatar Racing and China Horse Club’s multiple Group 1 winner Just the Judge (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}) cantered on the turf training track. 

Japanese Classic winners One and Only (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}) and the filly Harp Star (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) galloped on the Meydan dirt track, along with Khalid Abdullah’s Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who finished second to Main Sequence in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and The Aga Khan’s Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}). 

Several other European stars aimed for grass races galloped on the turf training track, with 
G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner The Grey Gatsby (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) cutting a robust figure after clearing quarantine for trainer Kevin Ryan. The Grey Gatsby is set for the $6 million G1 Dubai Turf at 1800 meters in what will be his first start since he defeated Australia (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Irish Champion S. in September. 

The very striking Brown Panther (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}), winner of the G1 Irish St. Leger last year, dazzled as he cantered on the turf training track with his neck arched under work rider Chris Ely for trainer Tom Dascombe. Brown Panther will contest the $1 million G2 Dubai Gold Cup over two miles on the turf. 

Meanwhile, Sole Power (GB) (Kyllachy {GB})–last year’s Cartier champion sprinter and Ireland’s Horse of the Year–thrust his head in the air and was a handful for his rider on the main training track. “He is fresh and keen, all right, which I suppose is a good sign,” observed trainer Eddie Lynam. 

Sole Power will try to improve on his 2012 second-place finish in the $1 million G1 Al Quoz Sprint when he runs in the 2015 edition of the 1000-meter turf dash. 

Another sprinter, Hong Kong-based Rich Tapestry (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), enjoyed an easy gallop on the Meydan dirt track as he prepares to try to improve upon his runner-up finish in last year’s $2 million G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at 1200 meters. 

Rich Tapestry, who flew to America and won the GI Santa Anita Sprint Championship S. last year after annexing the G3 Mahab Al Shimaal in Dubai, was slightly ill when he arrived back in the UAE Mar. 22, but has recovered, according to trainer Michael Chang. 

“He has improved a lot,” Chang said. “He’s in good shape.”