DUBAI: What a difference 12 months makes.
Last year the Saudi Arabian-owned Arrogate thundered to Dubai World Cup glory at Meydan Racecourse.
Here in Dubai on Saturday the world will converge on this most international of race meetings where there is $30 million up for grabs with the Saudi involvement considerably muted.
Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Monarchs Glen bids to keep his owner’s white, pink and green standard flying when Newmarket trainer John Gosden and Frankie Dettori team up with the gelded son of super sire Frankel in the $6 million Dubai Turf.
Earlier on the glittering nine-race card Tallaab Al-Khalediah, owned by Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, will attempt to augment his success at the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Horse Festival in January by taking away the Kahayla Classic for Purebred Arabians.
In terms of Saudi Arabian involvement, that is it.
Monarchs Glen has a fiendishly difficult task if he is even going to make the frame in the 1800-meter contest.
He won a Group Three race at Newmarket in England in October, and will try to land one of the most competitive Group Ones in the world off the back of a layoff since then.
As is customary at this meeting, he faces a myriad challengers from around the world.
Benbatl, the favorite, is owned by Godolphin and trained in Dubai. He is joined in the race by fellow runners from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s stable in Blair House, Leshlaa and Promising Run.
The last two winners of the race, Vivlos and Real Steel, will form a Japanese raiding party that includes the quietly-fancied Neorealism, Crocosmia and Deirdre. Trais Fluors hails from France. Janobi from South Africa. War Decree and Lancaster Bomber from Ireland.
And Prince Khalid Abdullah’s racing manager is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing Monarchs Glen.
“We’re very excited and obviously he has not run since October, which is interesting,” Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager to the Saudi Prince, said. “He was looking quite wintry around two weeks ago in a gallop around Chelmsford (in England) but he certainly has lost his coat and has a real sheen on him now.
“He will need to be on the upgrade because he is taking on stiffer opposition than he has ever met. We gelded him last year and his attitude got much better. Prince Khalid likes to race his horses and obviously we have not had many geldings of this calibre recently and he could be interesting. He is a son of Frankel so we definitely plan to carry on with him.”
Away from the Dubai Turf, the $6 million Dubai World Cup takes center stage.
Arrogate became the 11th US winner of what was formerly the world’s most valuable race, which, now back on a dirt surface, has once again taken on the dimension of Godolphin against the Americans.
West Coast represents Arrogate’s trainer, Bob Baffert, who is seeking a fourth win in the $10 million event by also saddling Mubtaahij.
The American attack is completed by Forever Unbridled, the Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner who is gunning to become the first mare to prevail, with Gunnevera and Pavel bolstering their raid.
Godolphin field dual Group 1 winner Thunder Snow and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic, who bids to prove his credentials on dirt. Of the domestic challenge, look out for North America who won the key trial three weeks ago for controversial Chechen owner Ramzan Kadyrov.
Baffert has been a mainstay at morning trackwork all week. The indefatigable 67-year-old has wise-cracked his way through almost three hours per day of watching a selection of the 111 horses set to appear on the nine-race card today go through their paces.
On the eve of the race, West Coast, who will be ridden by Javier Castellano, looked a picture as he warmed up at the racecourse on Friday. Baffert was flanked by Jimmy Barnes, his long-time assistant who had flown in overnight.
With Gary and Mary West, the owners of the World Cup favorite, also expected in for their first taste of the meeting, all the building blocks are now in place. The stage is set.
“West Coast has looked strong the whole week and has even filled out,” Baffert said. “He has the natural speed and the mile and a quarter (2000 meters) is his game but he to still break good and get around there. He’s got to get up there and be close to the pace and then kick home. That’s his style. But, this is a mad scramble. The jockeys like to ride to the first turn like there’s a sack of a million dollars there.”
And there is another nine million at the end for the winner, too.
Saudi Arabia guns for more glory with two horses on Dubai World Cup night
Saudi Arabia guns for more glory with two horses on Dubai World Cup night
Rublev marches on, Bublik and Draper fall at Dubai Tennis Championships
- No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev, the 2022 champion, dispatches Ugo Humbert in epic three setter 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3
- Tallon Griekspoor upsets No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets to set-up quarterfinal clash with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik
DUBAI: Andrey Rublev signaled his determination to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title on Wednesday, as the ruthless Russian dispatched fellow former champion Ugo Humbert in a titanic, three-set tussle on center court.
As a two-time finalist in Dubai and the winner there in 2022, Rublev already has fond memories of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. Meanwhile Humbert, who has also tasted success in Dubai having edged Alexander Bublik to the title in 2024, was looking to tame a second former winner in the space of 24 hours after eliminating reigning champion Stefanos Tsitsipas on Tuesday.
In the early stages of the match a smattering of vocal young fans stirred up an endless cacophony of noise from all four grandstands as the near-capacity crowd repeatedly serenaded both players with cries of “Let’s go, Andrey” and “Allez, Ugo,” the even split among the supporters mirroring the evenly matched contest.
The nail-biter of a match went with serve for the first six games before, as is so often the case in professional tennis, the seventh proved to be a critical turning point. Rublev took advantage of two break points afforded by a pair of uncharacteristic double-faults by Humbert to achieve what Tsitsipas had failed to do in the entirety of their Round of 32 clash: he broke the Frenchman.
The set then resettled into a familiar pattern as the pair once again held serve amid minimal threats. And so, after 41 minutes of the back-and-forth, Rublev claimed the opening set 6-4 courtesy of that sole break of serve.
The second set mirrored the first, this time with both players avoiding a break of serve, until Humbert, the current world No. 37, narrowly edged the tiebreak 7-5 to even the match.
With very little separating the battling duo at this point, their seesaw duel was akin to two prize fighters exchanging punches with neither able to land a decisive blow. Buoyed no doubt by the feverish support from their respective fans, both players refused to buckle.
But then, with the third set tied at 1-1, Rublev held serve, broke and held again to win three straight games and move 4-1 ahead. The match then, predictably, once again went with serve until it was 5-3.
Then Humbert, facing the prospect of elimination, suddenly found himself with two break points as his opponent wobbled while serving for the match. The steely Russian held his nerve, however, and dispatched a trio of massive serves, including two aces, to reverse the deficit and set up his first match-point.
That was all the 28-year-old needed, as another huge serve forced a Humbert error and sealed the match 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
“It was a very dramatic ending,” Rublev said. “I’m really happy I was able to keep going and save the last game.
“It’s difficult to close a match; you can make a double-fault or a mistake, but I made three good serves and that helped me a lot. It’s much easier to win points from the serve than playing rallies every time.”
He commended his opponent, saying: “Ugo played really well. I took my two break chances but he served unbelievably all match. He shoots super hard and very fast, so it’s not easy to do something. I had to be ready for the one chance to break him in a set, and I got those chances and was able to do it.
“This match gives me a lot of confidence, so we’ll see what will happen in the quarterfinal. I’m playing well, so let’s see.”
Rublev now faces another Frenchmen, Arthur Rinderknech, who emerged victorious from a grueling three-set marathon against the British No. 4 seed, Jack Draper, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4.
Their match, which finished well after midnight and with an eerie mist hovering over center court, yielded only two breaks of serve, both of which went Rinderknech’s way. Despite the defeat, Draper can head home with his head held high as his return to top-level tennis continues after a six-month injury layoff.
On the new court 1, Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands pulled off the biggest upset of the day by taming No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. The win earned the world No. 25 a quarterfinal encounter with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who made short work of the Australian, Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2.
