Dubai: Former Dubai World Cup-winning jockey Richard Hills believes Mukhadram has a big chance of claiming the big race honours this weekend — provided he runs the same race on the all-weather Tapeta surface as he does on grass.
Hills, who retired from the saddle two seasons ago, partnered the five-year-old British hope on his first visit to Meydan here on Tuesday, shortly after he was released from quarantine. As the first rays of the sun filtered through a light fog, Mukhadram was allowed to stretch his legs on the facility’s main turf track, where he cantered under an attentive Hills.
“I rode him on the turf because that’s the surface that he’s used to,” said Hills, who is the Racing Adviser to Mukhadram’s owner, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance.
“Although he will be making his career debut on the all-weather track this Saturday, we didn’t want to expose him to it so soon. He’s never tried it before but there is no reason he shouldn’t enjoy it as he’s done a lot of work in the UK on the all-weather surfaces at Southwell, Lingfield and Kempton.”
Hills also revealed that Mukhadram, who won two of his five starts last season, runs well first-up. “He won on his first start last season [G3 Brigadier Stakes at Sandown] and also his maiden the previous year,” said the Englishman, who won the 1999 Dubai World Cup with Almutawakel.
“He doesn’t do a lot of work as he’s not really a straight-forward horse. He’s been quite difficult to train.
“But he does a lot of his conditioning on the treadmill. It’s proved successful and we’ve got him in the best possible shape for Saturday.”
Mukhadram, who is trained by Harrow graduate William Haggas at his Somerville Lodge Stables in Newmarket, England, came into the Dubai World Cup picture after running a blinder to finish quarter of a length behind triple Group One winner Al Kazeem in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot last June.
“We thought, after consulting Shaikh Hamdan of course, that with what he showed us on that day over a mile-and-a-quarter that he was going to be our World Cup horse,” said Hills. “We minded him for the rest of the year and really raced him with the World Cup in mind.”
Now, the veteran of more than 15 years as stable jockey to Shaikh Hamdan is keeping his fingers crossed that the luck of Wednesday’s post position draw will be kind to Mukhadaram as he bids to give his owner a third victory in the World Cup after Almutawakel (1999) and Invasor (2007).
“We would like to be drawn on the inside, anything between one to six would be nice,” Hills said. “The rest is up to him. If he likes the track, he’ll run a big race, if he doesn’t, he won’t.”
