Dubai: Japanese star Daiwa Scarlet may join what is already building up to be a mouthwatering $6 million (Dh22 million) Dubai World Cup field.
The top-class four-year-old filly could take on the likes of Curlin, Daaher, Student Council, Awesome Gem (all USA), Asiatic Boy (South Africa), Vermilion (Japan), Ramonti (UAE) and Premium Tap (Saudi Arabia), who have all been earmarked for the world's richest race, sponsored by Emirates Airline
Daiwa Scarlet, a multiple Grade 1 winner, who was second to Matsurida Gogh in the Group 1 Grand Prix Arima Kinen in December, had earlier been touted as a runner in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free, sponsored by Dubai Duty Free.
But the trainer Kunihide Matsuda said: "We have not decided which race to enter her for - the Dubai Duty Free or Dubai World Cup.
'Looking forward'
"I think Dubai suits horses who race in front and I am really looking forward to March."
In preparation for a possible tilt at the Dubai World Cup, her next start could be her first challenge on dirt, the G1 February Stakes over 1,600 metres on February 24. With the free nominations closing for the Dubai World Cup meeting tomorrow, the headline race "is definitely on our list of plans for Student Council," according to trainer Vladimir Cerin.
Millennium Farms' six-year-old son of Kingmambo won the $1.12 million Pacific Classic Stakes (Gr 1) in August at Del Mar and the $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (Gr 2) in September at Hawthorne.
Student Council last raced in the $2.34 million Japan Cup Dirt (Gr 1), won by Vermilion, on November 24 at Tokyo Racecourse.
"I think running uphill the last part of the race might have surprised him a little bit and maybe that's why he didn't do as well. I think he'll do quite well in Dubai," Cerin said.
"We put him in a hyperbaric chamber for 10 treatments and it was like he didn't even go overseas. They recover very quickly if you put them in oxygen."
