Dubai: Ribchester, one of the leading milers in Europe last season, can continue Godolphin’s ascendancy in the $6 million (Dh22 million) Dubai turf (Group 1), the joint second richest turf race in the world and conceivably one of the most competitive events on the card.
Trained by Richard Fahey in Northern Yorkshire, the four-year-old son of Iffraaj will be having his first start since being narrowly beaten by Minding in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day at Ascot in England last October.
This is also the first time he is being tested over 1,800 metres, having previously been campaigned over the mile, a distance over which he scored the biggest win of his career, the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, France, in August.
He is joined in the Dubai Turf by another Godolphin-owned challenger, the Saeed Bin Surour-trained Very Special, who booked his spot in the race with an impressive performance when winning the Group 2 Cape Verdi Stakes over a mile at Meydan in January.
Assessing the chance of Ribchester, Fahey said: “He is in great nick and I have been pleased with him this week though he did his serious work before arriving.
“He has progressed over the winter and, hopefully, he is in good form on Saturday. Some of his form is very good and we feel that he is a better horse this year.
Here to stay
“I feel he will stay. There is every chance he will get the trip on his dam’s side, while Iffraaj has sprinters and staying horses. If Ribchester settles, he will definitely stay.”
Bin Surour, who has won the Dubai Turf five times between 1997 and 2013 reported on his five-year-old mare: “Very Special has been working nicely, but this looks a very tough race, with a different quality of horses compared to what she has been running against.
“She has been working well and deserves to take her chance. I am looking to see a good run from her against some very strong opposition.”
Very Special will be ridden by Silvestre de Sousa, who won the 2013 renewal for Bin Surour with the outstanding Sajjhaa.
The Godolphin pair face a strong challenger in the French-trained Zarak, a runner-up in last year’s Prix de Jockey Club (French Derby) at Chantilly who was more recently a cosy winner of the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan.
Trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre he will be once again ridden by Belgian ace and multiple French champion Christophe Soumillon, as he has on all his eight career outings. “Zarak will stay further in time but has the speed for this shorter trip which I think suits him best at the moment,” said Soumillon. “Hopefully he is still improving and can run a big race.”
A Group 2 winner at Ascot in July, he was then twice third in Group 1 company, most recently at Woodbine in Canada last September when chasing Tepin home.
The Group 1 Jebel Hatta, on Super Saturday, the final prep race for the Dubai Turf, was won in the dying strides by Decorated Knight trained by Roger Charlton.
The trainer’s only previous runner on the World Cup card was Cityscape, winner of the equivalent race to this in 2012 under Godolphin pilot James Doyle.
