Dubai: Emirati trainer Saeed Bin Surour’s record in the $2 million (Dh7.35 million) Kentucky Derby may appear depressing to most, but on the contrary it has helped rekindle his hunger for success in America’s greatest horse race.
The long-serving Godolphin handler, who is regarded as one of the leading trainers in Europe and the UAE where he has won 12 British Classics and a record seven $10 million Dubai World Cups respectively, has gone winless in seven attempts to win the Churchill Downs showpiece.
His last try was in 2009 when Regal Ransom and Desert Party finished 8th and 14th to Mine That Bird.
However much history may not be on his side, Bin Surour remains fiercely committed to Godolphin’s quest of winning major races like the Kentucky Derby, which was first run in 1875.
“You first have to be in the race if you want to win it,” has long been his motto and explains UAE Derby (G1) victor Thunder Snow’s presence among a cracking field likely to face the starter come 02:34 (UAE time) on Sunday.
When Thunder Snow romped home a 5 per cent length winner of the UAE 2000 Guineas (G2) at Meydan early February, Bin Surour had an inkling that he had a Kentucky Derby horse on his hands. But it was the Helmet colt’s thrilling victory in the UAE Derby (G1) on Dubai World Cup night that reignited his American dream.
By winning the Meydan Classic, Thunder Snow grabbed one of only two automatic qualifying slots for the race that called the ‘Run for the Roses.’
In that very instance, as His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, passionately greeted Thunder Snow into the Meydan winner’s enclosure, Bin Surour realised that he would be making the 7.000km plus journey from his UK base in Newmarket to the US in the first week of May.
“Following discussions with His Highness Shaikh Mohammad he made the decision that Thunder Snow is to go for the Kentucky Derby,” ,” Bin Suroor said in a video posted on the Godolphin website.
“He is a big, strong colt, who is improving all of the time and acts on dirt, and we are looking forward to seeing him take on the best three-year-olds in America.
“The Kentucky Derby is a great race and one of the few major international contests Shaikh Mohammad and Godolphin has yet to win,” he added.
“Thunder Snow is a colt of the highest class and I hope that he can step up in the Kentucky Derby.”
Bin Surour also believes that Thunder Snow has earned his place in the race having run some eye-popping races both in the UK last year and the UAE earlier this year, putting together a hat-trick of high class wins, in the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, the UAE 2,000 Guineas and the UAE Derby.