A Riveting Gold Cup On The Cards
The first grass race on the Dubai World Cup map on Saturday at Meydan features the top contender with the largest Elo advantage over its rivals throughout the night.
For the supporters of Subjectivist – especially its patient and resourceful owner Dr. Jim Walker from Dubai and the staff at Charlie Johnston’s Yorkshire base – it’s been a long road to return to the scene of his dazzling victory in the 2021 edition of this race; An injury to his superficial flexor tendon shortly after winning the Ascot Gold Cup that year meant nine months of intensive water therapy and walking on an aquatic treadmill.
Giavellotto is among a group of younger stayers aiming to defeat Subjectivist and the established names in the Gold Cup (Image – Dubai Racing Club/Liesl King)
Emotionally, a second Dubai Gold Cup would give the subjectivists an enormous high; none more so than jockey Joe Fanning, whose career has included Group 1 wins in two-thirds partnership with the son of Teofilo.
After such a long hiatus, it’s perhaps not surprising that Subjectivist “missed” on his comeback in the Red Sea Turf Handicap last month.
Charlie Johnston’s father and now assistant Mark hopes the class advantage the ‘old’ subjectivist would have had over these rivals remains intact – remember he gave his rivals £8+ in handicap conditions in Saudi Arabia – while being extremely realistic that even if he’s somewhere near his best again, there might only be a few dances left for this stylish stayer.
Mark Johnston said: “It’s a very good race on Saturday but there was no better race than the Ascot Gold Cup he won two years ago and it’s probably no better than the Gold Cup he won here . It depends on whether he’s able to come back and play like he’s used to.”
There’s officially a five-pound gap to each other’s best, but Aidan O’Brien-trained Broome is an intriguing rival now, having recovered from a career largely spent at 2,400m which includes victories in the G1 Grand , delayed at 3,200m attempted Prix de Saint-Cloud of 2021 and last year’s G2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Don’t expect to see Ryan Moore cruising anywhere but the shortest route when he’s dragged right onto the railing in stall one, and if his endurance lasts as he enters uncharted territory, Brorome’s class of a mile and a half would become a serious one become a threat to everyone.
The form horses coming in here are Enemy – who put on a superb run chasing home Japanese-trained Red Sea winner Silver Sonic, as well as the principals of the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy here on February 17th ; namely Siskany for Charlie Appleby, Al Nayyir for Doug Watson and, sandwiched between the two, Ardakan.
The latter will be joined by Marco Botti’s stablemate Giavellotto, who could still be promoted to third place after a difficult passage in St. Leger last season.
“Ardakan is in very good shape, he’s had a few runs in Dubai so he’s fit to race and has adapted well,” said Botti. “He has settled in well in his races and we have Damian Lane on board this time who is a very good and experienced jockey so we couldn’t be happier with him.
Botti added: “Giavellotto came by last Saturday and has traveled well. Obviously he was wintering in England and it was important that he didn’t have a prep race simply because we had a race in mind that was a little too close to his flight. We decided to give him a gallop at Chelmsford racecourse instead to keep him fit and healthy.”
Giavellotto has inherited Box 15 with the defection of Andre Fabre-trained Sober but things may yet to go right for him.
El Habeeb caught Giavellotto in the shadow of the post at Ascot in the pair’s last start last season and is the first Dubai World Cup night runner for Kevin Philippart de Foy, a rising star of the Newmarket training ranks.
Fellow four-year-old Al Qareem looked good winning the G2 Prix Chaudenay at Arc weekend and arguably couldn’t cope with the three-week turnaround and a second long journey to a very soft Longchamp in the G1 Prix Royal-Oak while she can thwarting his unfortunate reappearance in the Saudi race.
Looking back further from those who ran in Riyadh, Get Shirty finished well and finished third from a wide draw and is better off here in stall six, although he is 5lbs worse off with Enemy while Henk Grewe’s was training What Could Go On’s Sisfahan was a first attempt at extreme travel.
Of the established enduring brigade, Quickthorn is best placed with a 115 rating to exploit every crack in Subjectivist or Broome’s armor, while the Godolphin Hand is further empowered by Global Storm (Appleby), Passion And Glory (Saeed Bin Suroor). will ) and Trawlerman (John and Thady Gosden).