Dubai World Cup field oozes class

Next Saturday’s 26th edition of the Dubai World Cup extravaganza has the potential to be one of the best renewals in recent years, if not ever.

And the figures speak for themselves.

No less than 34 horses who have won at horse racing’s highest level, in racing parlance, Group/ Grade 1 winners, have assembled at Meydan Racecourse to vie for a share of the $30.5 million prize money across nine glittering contests.

By any yardstick, this marks an incredibly high-quality of equine stars gathered under one roof and which adds meat to the argument that the Dubai World Cup meeting always aspired to be considered as the Olympic Games of horse racing.

And why not?

While each of the day’s nine races is run for a minimum purse of $1millon, every race is contested over a different distance, ranging from sprint contests to middle distance and staying races.

The highlight of the day, the $12million Dubai World Cup, has been won by some of the sport’s biggest names in the sport from Cigar in the inaugural year in 1996 through Silver Charm, Dubai Millennium, Arrogate and Thunder Snow.

And this year’s renewal has not surprisingly drawn the very best middle distance dirt runners led by American star Life Is Good.

He is likely to be joined by ten other dirt specialists ensuring that the field for Saturday’s showpiece will feature 11 high-quality equine athletes.

Among them are Grade 1 winner Hot Rod Charlie, who has been based in Dubai since January for Doug O’Neill and who captured the G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 in his most recent start at Meydan; Bob Baffert’s Grade 1 winner Country Grammer, and the Steve Asmussen-trained Midnight Bourbon, who were second and third, respectively, in the G1 Saudi Cup on February 26.

Also in the international lineup is G1 Premio Latinoamericano winner and twice Uruguayan champion Aero Trem, who is trained by Antonio Cintra, while the second-and third-place finishers in the 2021 Dubai World Cup have returned to give it another shot.

Chuwa Wizard from Japan and Magny Cours, trained in France by Andre Fabre for Godolphin was not disgraced when they finished behind the winner Mystic Guide.

And with a winner’s purse of $7.2 million at stake, there is no margin of error, as even the smallest of margins have separated the victors from the vanquished.