Jetting past the rest

JJ The Jet Plane won the Al Quoz two years ago, when it was run over 1,200 metres, his preferred distance. A handicap win here 16 days ago put him firmly on course for another crack at the big sprint. JJ The Jet Plane will prefer a hot early pace — something that is quite likely. He defeated Golden Shaheen contender Rocket Man in the Hong Kong Sprint (G1) at Sha Tin last December.

Rocket Man got first run on him — as they had raced in third and fourth place in the early exchanges — but JJ The Jet Plane found an extra gear close home and just got up to steal the prize by a nose. JJ The Jet Plane had won two Group 1 sprints over 1,200 metres in South Africa earlier in the season and he has also shown himself to be competitive at the highest level when shipped to England.

Globeform: 120

Sole Power was a 100-1 shock winner of the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) over five furlongs (1,000m) at York in England last year, beating the heavy favourite Starspangledbanner by 1¼ lengths after coming with a strong finish to lead 50 yards from the winning post.

Sole Power, and Irish-trained gelding, had won twice over the minimum trip before but in considerably lower grades, and it will be interesting to see if he can confirm the York form this term. If he can, he will be one of the leading players in the sprint division. Starspangledbanner ran below his best at York but he had previously won both the Golden Jubilee (G1) at Royal Ascot and July Cup (G1) at Newmarket and was the top sprinter in Europe in 2010.

Globeform: 119

Stradivinsky, shipped over from Florida, set himself up for this task by winning the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint (G3) in January. Staged over the same distance as the Al Quoz, the race attracted just five runners but it was quite competitive. Stradivinsky carried top weight to win by 1¼ lengths from Great Attack. He ran the five furlongs in 56.7 seconds.

He possesses good speed but stays further too, as demonstrated when he took the six-furlong Jaipur Stakes (G3) at Belmont last July. That was his fourth consecutive success and he ran another solid race to finish third behind Chamberlain Bridge in September. Stradivinsky failed to fire at the Breeders' Cup, and beat only one of the 13 rivals in the big event. He had probably lost his form at that stage. His win in January indicates that he has regained it now.

Globeform: 113

Mr. Gruff, another US contender, leads straight away, and normally finishes in the first three. That said, quite how effective he will be over 1,000 metres remains to be seen, as he has raced over further in the US. Mr. Gruff even showed enough stamina to take third in the Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Hollywood Park last year, when he was beaten just a length behind Victor's Cry after leading into the straight.

He had previously beaten Victor's Cry by 2¼ lengths to win the San Simeon Handicap (G3) over 6.5 furlongs (1,300 metres) at Santa Anita. He has had hind-end problems and he is thus lightly raced; just nine starts is not much for a seven-year-old, but Mr. Gruff has a nice strike rate, with five wins to date. This will be his first run for nine months, though he often runs well after a break and that is not a cause for concern.

Globeform: 115

Worth knowing...

This event has been run just twice previously, but then over 1,200 metres, with victories for South Africa's JJ The Jet Plane and Hong Kong's Joy And Fun.