Pace will hold the key to winning

In the catalogue of cliches identified with thoroughbred horse racing there is one which goes: "The winner came from off the pace." Kevin Greely, the Emirates Racing Association's Racing Secretary was willing to back that up when visualising how tomorrow's $6 million Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates, will be run. "I'd be surprised to see a horse win like Dubai Millennium did last year," he said yesterday. "I think the horse that wins the race will come from off the pace.

"I think it's certainly one of the toughest fields ever assembled here and I would imagine there'll be four or five horses making a run from the money in the final stages. But I don't think you will be able to choose the winner when they reach the furlong, shall we say quarter pole. It will be decided much closer to the post." In less than 38 hours from the time you probably read this the World Cup will have shown its hand. But as of now, the cards are being shuffled.

I persuaded Greely, who has supervised the reconditioning process of the dirt track at Nad Al Sheba, to forecast how they could emerge. "It's certainly a lot more competitive this year, there's no standout horse," he said. "Captain Steve is the favourite on the basis of his performance on dirt and obviously his experience in some of North America's biggest races.

"I also think Godolphin's Best of the Bests is gonna run a very big race. I think Aptitude, the second American raider, as well will run prominently. Hightori, he's been training well over the race track and he won over the same course and distance three weeks ago. He beat some nice horses in that race and should stand a big chance. "These horses could dominate in the final stages, but it just as well could be any one of the other eight. Either way it's gonna be a big, big race."

Greely was speaking from a position of strength having supervised the race track's upkeep.
"We rotovated the track twice in the last four months to ensure that it was in the best possible condition," he revealed. "What we did last summer was to add a bit more sand as the amount of silt and clay had built up a little. So we went down and dug up a little more dune sand from the base.

"Right now we have the percentage where we want it - it's 78 percent fine dune sand, two percent clay and 20 percent silt. We did the rotovation to ensure that the material was well distributed throughout the surface and it's worked very well and we're very pleased with it." Horseracing has always depended heavily on the race surface and in Greely's scheme of things the track at Nad Al Sheba has never been better. "It takes a while for a racecourse to mature. Right now this track at Nad Al Sheba is world class as befits a world championship."