Godolphin’s Man Of Promise and Speaker’s Corner set themselves up for major Group One targets over the coming months with exciting victories in Dubai and North America.
Emerging sprinter Man Of Promise continued his outstanding start to 2022 with a stunning display in the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint Sponsored By Emirates SkyCargo on Meydan’s Super Saturday fixture, beating G1 winner A Case Of You by almost five lengths. The five-year-old ran a creditable race to finish a close eighth in last year’s Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint but heads back into the Dubai World Cup Night feature this time in the form of his life, according to the Godolphin website.
Speaker’s Corner also made it two-from-two this year with an equally dominant win at Gulfstream Park, scoring by five and a half lengths in the G2 Gulfstream Park Mile. After landing G3 and G2 contests so far in 2022, another rise in class is on the cards for the Street Sense colt, with the G1 Met Mile at Belmont Park under consideration — a race famously won in devastating fashion by Frosted in 2016.
Progressive four-year-old Storm Damage provided a double on Super Saturday as he led home a Godolphin 1-2-3-4 in the new Ras Al Khor Sponsored By Emirates Airline.
The four-year-old son of Night Of Thunder, who lowered his own seven-furlong course record at Meydan after having previously set the mark when scoring impressively in the Listed Business Bay Challenge in February, broke well and soon tracked the front-running Al Suhail.
Business Bay Challenge runner-up Mutafawwig closed late to take the same spot again and provide Saeed bin Suroor with a 1-2. Path Of Thunder and D’bai filled the minor places for Charlie Appleby.
“Storm Damage is improving all the time. I remember when he won first time out at Kempton and since then he has just improved — he would be one of the nicest horses in our stable,” Bin Suroor was quoted by Godolphin website.
“We will keep options open. He could go for the Godolphin Mile but it will depend on what rating they give him. He has not run on the dirt before but he has run over a mile and won well.
“Frankie said a mile would be no problem. The question mark is the surface and we will make a decision in a few days. He could be a horse for Royal Ascot later in the year,” said Bin Suroor after the win on March 5.
Frankie Dettori said: “I spent many years with Saeed and it is always a great pleasure riding for him. Storm Damage is a sweet horse and did it really well.
“The race fell apart a lot quicker than I thought, which meant I had to make my own way home, and the horse answered my every call.”
Appleby was honoured at Meydan as well as he received the Best Trainer accolade at the His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Horse Racing Excellence Awards following an exceptional 2021 for Moulton Paddocks.
