Magician
Magician, winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Breeders’ Cup Turf last year, deserves to be a clear favourite in the Sheema Classic.
This Irish-trained colt was quite impressive on both occasions, as he had been when winning by a wide margin at Chester in England on his seasonal debut. He travelled strongly throughout in the Guineas, a classic run over a straight mile at The Curragh, and quickened right away at the finish to win by 3½ lengths from his stable companion Gale Force Ten, who went on to win the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot the next time. Magician also travelled to Ascot but disappointed badly when finishing last of nine behind Dawn Approach in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
Something must have been amiss that day, and the son of Galileo was given a lengthy break afterwards. He was not seen on a racecourse again for four and a half months.
His comeback was not exactly easy, as he went for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in California in November. Not only was he back from a lay-off, but he was also stepping up to 1½ miles and facing older horses for the first time. Magician beat them all, and he beat them in style, racing ahead with a strong finish to pass the favourite, The Fugue. He won decisively by half a length. Magician looks the one to beat in the Sheema.
Cirrus des Aigles
Cirrus des Aigles is well known to racing fans worldwide. Familiar with air travel, this tough and genuine runner from France has been around quite a bit, winning big races in Europe, Hong Kong and Dubai. He beat So You Think to take the Champion Stakes in England in 2011, and the following year he took the Sheema here in Dubai (from St Nicholas Abbey), Prix Ganay at Longchamp (by eight lengths from Giofra) and got to within two lengths of the mighty Frankel back in the Champion Stakes.
Cirrus des Aigles’s 2013 campaign was dull to begin with, but Corrine Barrande-Barbe’s pride and joy regained winning form in the autumn, with easy wins in the La Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte and Prix Dollar (a race he won for a second time). He rounded his season off with two solid runs in defeat, second to Farhh in the Champion Stakes and third to Akeed Mofeed in the Hong Kong Cup. The reason Cirrus des Aigles goes on racing at the age of eight is that he is a gelding. He warmed up for Dubai with a fourth-place finish to Now We Can in a minor event at Deauville in February over 1,900 metres, which is too short for him.
Gentildonna
A dual winner of the Japan Cup, Gentildonna has been one of the most successful turf runners in the world over the past couple of years. Daughter of Deep Impact, another Japan Cup winner, she is good enough to win this year’s Sheema Classic — if on song. That may be a bit of an if, however. Gentildonna’s second Japan Cup win, gained in Tokyo four months ago, was anything but impressive, and her first run this year was downright disappointing. Is she past her best racing days, or will she hit her recent critics right in the face with yet another big race win? Hard to say, though ruling her out would be folly. There will be some classy ladies on display on the World Cup night but make no mistake, none more so than Gentildonna.
She got the better of Orfevre, one of the best male turf runners around, when taking the Japan Cup in 2012. Her winning margin that day was just a nose and, remarkably, that was also the margin when she defeated Denim And Ruby last autumn. The big difference being, of course, that Denim And Ruby is nowhere near as good as Orfevre, who has won six Group One events and been runner-up in the last two editions of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Gentildonna has five Group Ones on her impressive CV. She was second to St Nicholas Abbey in the Sheema last time around, and last October she filled the same place behind Just A Game in the Tenno Sho Autumn. Gentildonna’s overall record is second to none. What will be a worry to her team is her dull sixth place effort as odds-on favourite in a Group Two at Kyoto in February, when readily beaten behind a 33-1 winner called Desperado. Her fans probably disliked his name just as much as the result.
