Dubai: We are just three days away from the iconic Dubai World Cup meeting and steadily the picture becomes clearer as we closely study and analyse each horse, rider and trainer combination at the Meydan gallops.
Scrutinising closely for any changes in behaviour or demeanour in a horse that could be an indicator of good or even bad things to come.
The varying opinions of the gathered throng of experts and pundits, some paid handsomely to voice their thoughts on air or in print, will never cease to surprise me. But if we all were of the same opinion, what a boring life it would be!
We saw American sprinter Mind Your Biscuits again look the part in his breeze,
Dubai World Cup hopeful Forever Unbridled continues to train quietly while Vazirabad continues his relentless steady march to history of winning a third consecutive Dubai Gold Cup.
UAE Derby (Group 2) contender Reride begins to bloom, while Al Quoz Sprint (Group 1) hopeful Magical Memory wowed us with his handsome face along with fellow grey turf sprinter. Richards Boy, who completed a routine canter on the dirt after somehow starting off on the turf track with his stablemate Conquest Tsunami until it appeared that trainer Peter Miller instructed jockeys Kent Desormeaux and Victor Espinoza to go back out and switch to the main track [dirt].
I have never seen this happen before and a deal of confusion arose among the media.
Even the world’s top jockeys — Espinoza rode California Chrome to World Cup victory in 2016 and Desormeaux — can misunderstand instructions but never on a big race night such as we have coming up.
— Jacquie Doyle is a former trainer and the mother of leading jockeys, James and Sophie Doyle
