Super Saturday is not so super these days, the annual Meydan lead-in to the Dubai World Cup card something of an afterthought as the Saudi Cup and its attendant stakes, inaugurated in 2020, has gained momentum.
The most notable horse racing Saturday in the series of preps for World Cup stakes is the 8-year-old sprinter Tuz, who will be favored in the 1,200-meter Mahab al Shimaal. Tuz, trained by Bhupat Seemar, enters the Mahab al Shimaal on a four-race winning streak that began with a breakout victory in the 2024 Dubai Golden Shaheen, a race in which he figures, pending Saturday’s run, to be a major player again. Tuz has won his three starts during this Dubai racing season, each by open lengths.
The featured Group 2, $463,000 Maktoum Classic goes with 15 runners, none of whom are likely to make a serious dent in the Dubai World Cup on April 5.
Among the entrants is Kabirkhan, who emerged from, of all places, the Russian racing circuit to score a pair of eye-catching wins last season at Meydan before running into a brick wall in the World Cup, where he checked in eighth, beaten more than 18 lengths. Kabirkhan, trained by Doug Watson, almost has to improve upon his first start since the World Cup, a seventh-place finish on Jan. 24.
Seemar starts two horses who finished in front of Kabirkhan last out, Imperial Emperor and Artorius, respectively second and fourth behind their winning stablemate Walk of Stars in the Maktoum Challenge.
Imperial Emperor is a legitimate favorite, a shift this winter to dirt racing yielding two wins before the last-start runner-up finish. Artorius, during the American phase of his career, when trained by Chad Brown, looked like a horse who won’t love stretching out from 1,600 to 2,000 meters as he will Saturday.
There are several prominent runners Saturday with American racing experience.
The Charlie Appleby-trained Nations Pride, winner last summer of the Arlington Million, runs in the Group 2 Singspiel over 1,800 meters on turf and will not win if he cannot improve upon his last two performances, a flop in Bahrain last fall and a dull ninth-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup Turf.
The Appleby-trained First Conquest is far less accomplished than Nations Pride but is a horse on the way up coming into the Singspiel, a prep for the Dubai Turf. First Conquest is on a three-race winning streak that began last summer in England. First Conquest made his Group stakes debut in the Dubai Millennium on Jan. 31 and won it by about 1 1/2 lengths.
Cagliostro, campaigned in America through a 10th-place finish in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, made his Dubai debut and first start for trainer Hamad al Jehani in the Firebreak Stakes on Jan. 24, finishing a solid third, just behind beaten favorite Laurel River, smashing winner of the 2024 World Cup. Cagliostro is one of 16 entered in the 1,600-meter Burj Nahaar, and neither King Gold, winner of the Firebreak, nor Laurel River are among his rivals.
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Highway Robber last saw racing action in October at Keeneland, where he beat the Appleby-trained Bold Act in the Sycamore Stakes while trained by Brian Lynch. Owners Jim and Susan Hill have sent the gelding to trainer Charlie Hills in Dubai, and Highway Robber, his connections surely eyeing the Sheema Classic on the World Cup card, starts in the City of Gold, a 1 1/2-mile grass race.
Among his opponents is the Appleby-trained Silver Knott, who has made his last 10 starts in America, winning the Elkhorn, the Man o’ War, and the Bowling Green last season.
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