The lull before ‘Grand National season’ begins sees flat racing takes centre-stage this weekend with Aidan O’Brien getting his Group 1 campaign for the year underway in Dubai.
Mogul does the honours for the champion trainer in the $5 million Longines Sheema Classic at Meydan’s $26.5 million World Cup extravaganza.
The 25th Dubai World Cup is the centrepiece of a lavish programme despite overall prizemoney being cut from $35 million in 2019.
However the purse for the main race, due off at 4.50 Irish-time, is unchanged at $12 million.
As well as Mogul in the main support event due off at 4.10pm, Irish hopes will also be carried by Joseph O’Brien’s Speak In Colours in the $1 million Al Quoz Sprint.
The World Cup’s silver anniversary takes place on the back of the recent death of Dubai’s deputy ruler, Sheikh Hamdan, as well as the cancellation of last year’s fixture due to the pandemic.
Continuing controversy over Sheikh Mohammed’s daughter Princess Latifa also continues to provoke headlines far removed from the promotional aspect to the World Cup’s creation in 1996.
From a racing perspective that was also the year a young Aidan O’Brien secured the first of 344 career Group 1 victories to date.
That was Desert King in the National Stakes at the Curragh while the latest of them was supplied by Mogul in December’s Hong Kong Vase.
The highly regarded colt has been kept busier than most through the winter at Ballydoyle and lines up in a 10 runner event that O’Brien picked up eight years ago with St Nicholas Abbey.
Ryan Moore again teams up with Mogul who tackles the Japanese star Chrono Genesis as well as perhaps the most versatile top level performer in world racing right now.
Last month’s Saudi Cup dwarfed its neighbour’s big race in terms of value and also saw a remarkable performance by Mishriff.
The 2020 French Derby winner made light of a switch to dirt and won the world’s most valuable race for Irish jockey David Egan.
Now the colt is back on grass and a first try at a mile and a half.
“If things go well on Saturday there’s a lot of options, maybe even the Arc at the end of the year could be the main target” Egan has said.
It is not unknown for horses to be equally at home on both surfaces - some believe one of the all-time great dirt champions, Secretariat, was more comfortable on turf - but it’s rare for one to be campaigned as ambitiously as Mishriff is.
As a son of Galileo, Mogul’s pedigree and performance is grass through and through.
He can also boast a top-level win in the Grand Prix de Paris last year during a singular campaign interrupted not only by coronavirus but also by reverses for O’Brien such as contaminated feed forcing the withdrawal of his runners from the Arc meeting.
Ultimately his 2020 haul of 15 Group 1 victories fell a long way short of his 2017 world-record of 28 top-flight wins.
However with ante-post favourites for all of this year’s classics, and encouragement from last weekend’s Curragh action that the Ballydoyle team are forward, the potential for O’Brien to again sweep all before him again this summer is obvious.
The markets reckon O’Brien Snr’s biggest challenge for the Guineas in May will come from his son.
Joseph O’Brien has confirmed on his Group 1 wining juveniles Pretty Gorgeous ad Thunder Moon are on course for the Newmarket classics although his focus on Saturday will be Speak In Colours.
David Egan teams up with the Group 2 winner for a six furlong event that looks to be dominated by Godolphin’s Space Blues.
Godolphin run three in the big race itelf including the US horse Mystic Guide as well as the French based Magny Cours who could be well suited by a first-try on dirt.
