Thunder Snow is the best Kentucky Derby contender we’ve ever had: Bin Surour

Dubai: If there is one attribute that defines successful sportsmen, it is perseverance, a quality that veteran Godolphin handler Saeed Bin Surour has in abundance.

When Bin Surour saddles up Thunder Snow in Saturday’s $2-million Kentucky Derby (G1) it won’t be the first time. nor last, that he has gone through the routine at Churchill Down’s racecourse, which doubtless will be overflowing with suspense and drama.

He has completed the task on no less than seven contenders over the years with only one of them, China Visit in 2000, coming reasonably close to pulling it off with a sixth place effort.

His first Kentucky Derby experience came in 1999, when he saddled Worldly Manner to finish 7th but 17 years later, Bin Surour stands on the threshold of securing an elusive victory in America’s most famous race, should Thunder Snow find the speed, stamina and class to upstage some of the best three-year-old dirt specialists in the world.

“I am very excited. I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time — to bring a horse with a big chance to run in the greatest race in America,” the trainer said in Louisville.

“Thunder Snow is a tough horse with a lot of class, which you need because the Kentucky Derby is a very, very tough race.

“He is the best horse we have ever sent (to the Derby). He was a Group 1 winner (on turf) in France before he won the Group 2 UAE Derby on dirt at Meydan, beating a previously unbeaten Japanese champion (Epicharis).

“He has arrived fresh and healthy and I am very happy with him,” the trainer added.

Tactics and post position are crucial in major races like the Derby and Thunder Snow, who has drawn the inside, gate 2, will need to be at his smartest at the break.

“Ideally, I would like him to take a good position, close to the pace and away from the kickback,” Saeed said. This leaves little alternative for the jockey (Christope Soumillon).

“I know it’s a tough race, (with) the best horses in the world, but our horse has the class to run.”

Thunder Snow will face 19 rivals, among them several horses with major chances, and perhaps none more than Classic Empire, the Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Group 1 Arkansas Derby winner.

Another standout contender looks to be Always Dreaming, winner of the Group 1 Florida Derby, with McCraken, a recent third in Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes, and Irish War Cry, the Wood Memorial winner, also crying out for attention.

And if that’s not enough, throw in Gormley, the winner of the Group 1 Santa Anita Derby.

So should Thunder Snow defy his odds of 20-1 and win the 143rd Kentucky Derby, it will be one of the sweetest victories in Bin Surour’s career, which began in 1995, when he was appointed head trainer to the international racing operation created by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Driven by Shaikh Mohammad’s quest to make the stable the best in the world. Godolphin has won virtually every major race in Europe over the past two decades and a record eight Dubai World Cups.

Godolphin has also won Eclipse Awards as outstanding owner in 2009 and 2012, and Darley, Shaikh Mohammad’s breeding operation, was named co-outstanding owner in 2006 (with Lael Stables) and outstanding breeder in 2012.

In 2008, Bernadini won one leg of the American Triple Crown for Shaikh Mohammad when successful in the Group 1 Preakness Stakes.

Always Dreaming and Classic Empire are the 6-1 joint favourites with Irish War Cry, trained by Englishman Graham Motion who won the 2011 Derby with Animal Kingdom, on offer at 8-1. Thunder Snow is a 16-1 chance.

“It’s very open,” said Motion who also runs Miss Temple City in her Royal Ascot prep at the Louisville track.

“Mark Casse’s champion two-year-old Classic Empire seems to be back in form and Always Dreaming hasn’t done much wrong. After that we’re in the mix. Irish War Cry’s run one bad race, in the Fountain of Youth, but it was too bad to believe. I saw Thunder Snow out this morning and he looked well.”