War Artist sounds sprint warning with Shindagha win
Eustace-trained runner victorious in $200,000 Group Three race, proving too good for Godolphin's Gayego and El Cambio
Dubai : New Market-based trainer James Eustace has a problem on his hands but it is a happy problem. War Artist under Olivier Peslier scored a superb win in the Group Three Al Shindagha Sprint sponsored by Xpress leaving the trainer to choose from either the Gulf News-sponsored Dubai Golden Shaheen on the all-weather surface on which he won on Thursday night or the Al Quoz Sprint on turf which is the newly-added sprint to the Dubai World Cup card.
War Artist proved too good for Godolphin's pair of Gayego (Lanfranco Dettori up) and El Cambio (Ahmad Ajtebi up) to win the $200,000 (Dh734,000) race which points to the Golden Shaheen.
The Eustace-trained War Artist won the Group 2 Goldene Peitsche at Baden Baden, Germany in August last year and the 5-furlong Group 3 Petit Couvert at Longchamp in September before finishing third in the Group 1 Prix de L'Abbaye at Longchamp in October. In December the New Market runner was invited to Hong Kong and a bad draw saw him finish 12th but Eustace was delighted with Thursday's win, War Artist's first on the Tapeta.
"I am really pleased because I thought he will need the run. I still think he will come off better from this race," he said.
"He had a bad draw in Hong Kong and riding the race from there was difficult. And I think right hand bend is not him. For whatever reason … anyway he has put it behind him," Eustace told Dubai Racing Channel.
"His best form is on six furlongs fast turf, in a straight line. But it is nice to have the option. I did not put him in the Golden Shaheen but the owner tells me he did," said Eustace, keeping the 6-year-old bay gelding's options open for either turf or Tapeta.
"I still think the ideal race would be the Al Quoz but we will run him on March 4 and then decide," he said.
Trainers' success
In other action, Mike de Kock's Lizard's Desire won for the second time while the UAE's Satish Seemar also saddled a smart winner in Escape Route.
"He has got a lot of ability and he is really enjoying this surface. Very good ride from Christophe [Soumillon]. There was a lot of trouble around him, in front of him, but he did well. Quite impressive," said De Kock on the lone win for the night by the South African.
