West Coast (Flatter) proved the dominant 3-year-old in the U.S. last year, with wins in the Grade I Travers S. and GI Pennsylvania Derby followed by a good third in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic, but the bay faces a whole new challenge while leaving his home country for the first time when he lines up the favourite for Saturday's $10-million G1 Dubai World Cup.
Any seasoned follower of racing will know horses don't always take their form on the road, but trackside reports on the Eclipse champion have been upbeat, and he certainly has the trainer to get him to the winner's circle in Bob Baffert. Baffert looks for back-to-back World Cup wins, having saddled Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) to a scarcely believable come-from-behind victory last year, and a third overall, with wins by Silver Charm (1998) and Captain Steve (2001) also to his credit.
West Coast had chased home last year's World Cup second Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in his last two starts-the Breeders' Cup and when second in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 27, 2 1/2 lenths behind that rival and over 10 lengths clear of Gunnevera (Dialed In)-and with Gun Runner now safely ensconced at stud the way looks clear for West Coast to progress to the dominant older horse in the U.S. West Coast was accompanied to Dubai by stablemate Mubtaahij (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who is proven over the track having won the G2 UAE Derby two years ago for trainer Mike de Kock, and the last-out GI Santa Anita H. second gets the services of 2016 World Cup-winning jockey Victor Espinoza.
“You can't come in here with a 'B' horse,” Baffert said. “I'm really excited and it's a privilege to be here, but this race is a challenge. You can't be afraid to get them beat.”
Of West Coast, he said, “He's always been in the shadow of Arrogate. Now it's time for West Coast to be the starting quarterback. This race is his coming out party.”
“He's big and he's really strong, and he's got a high cruising speed,” the trainer added. “He's a brute. He can carry 126 pounds. He has a good mind but he can be tough to handle. He'll push you around a little bit. He's very competitive. He's a really good, top-class horse. He's on the rise, and he keeps getting better and better. I like the way he's coming into this race.”
North America (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) would be providing a career highlight for Satish Seemar, one of the pioneering trainers of the UAE, were he to pull off a mild upset here, and given this race's history of throwing up the odd longshot, track- specialist winner, it couldn't come as a total surprise. North America has shown steady improvement stepped up in trip this season, culminating in a rail-riding, 5 1/4-length gate-to-wire win over Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}) in the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge R3 on Mar. 10. Drawn in two here, he could get a similar passage under Richie Mullen.
“Stall two is ideal,” Mullen said. “He's a natural front-runner, so I should be able to go forward from the start. He's got to improve again, considering the opposition he'll be facing, but for a horse who never shows much in the morning, his work on Monday makes me think he's still progressing. He could be the dark horse of the race, and he's definitely my best chance of a Thoroughbred winner on the night.”
Another proven traveler is Godolphin's French-based 2017 GI Breeders' Cup Turf winner Talismanic (GB) (Medaglia d'Oro). Leaving France for the first time in his racing career when winning at Del Mar last November, Talismanic then headed to Hong Kong, where he ran a bang-up second to Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G1 Hong Kong Vase. Talismanic prepped for this with a win over the Chantilly synthetic over stablemate and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe runner-up Cloth of Stars (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) on Mar. 6, and his unknown factor here is the dirt, which he races on for the first time.
Chuck Fipke's champion mare Forever Unbridled (Unbridled's Song) makes her last stop before she visits Talismanic's sire Medaglia d'Oro to begin her stud career, and the Eclipse champion mare looks for her fourth straight win, and third consecutive Group 1, while making her first start since the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff in November. While it is Forever Unbridled's first foray outside the U.S., she has done plenty of domestic travel.
“She's handled the trip as good as any horse that I've been around,” trainer Dallas Stewart said. “She's won at eight different racetracks, but there are a lot of components that go into this. But, she thrives on getting ready for a race. The harder we pushed her in New Orleans this winter, the better she got. After the Breeders' Cup we just jogged her. We gave her plenty of time since that race, but she's never been out of training. She's galloped every day. If she gets a day off, she freaks out. She wants to be on the track. I didn't want to work her 1200m in January for a race in March, but I looked at my charts and made a schedule. She's had some just amazing works coming into the race.”
“If I didn't think she was training good, I wouldn't run,” Stewart said. “I'd just take her back home. She's done great since she's been here.”
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