‘Distance, surface neat match for Royal Delta’

The four-year-old filly won her only-ever race over the all-weather/artificial turf at Keeneland in April last year and the 2,000m seemingly isn’t a concern for Mott, despite Royal Delta only have covered the distance once in nine starts.

Those factors then bolster Royal Delta’s claims ahead of the meet as Mott looks to follow up his success with the DWC’s inaugural winner Cigar back in 1996 at the third time of asking.

“The distance and the surface is a good fit,” Mott said. “Obviously, we’re running against some very talented horses and we’ve got to find out if we can meet the challenge as far as the rest of the competition goes. But, the conditions could be very well suited to her.

“She’s done well since she’s been here. She’s been happy, healthy, moving well and seems to get over the track very well. “We let her stretch her legs out a little bit on Wednesday. We just let her open up a little bit down the stretch and she was just floating over the ground. She seemed like she got over it very well.”

Mott revealed Royal Delta had lost a few pounds while travelling to Dubai, but appeared unconcerned by that development given the horse’s voracious appetite.

“You expect them to probably drop a little bit of weight on the trip, so – although we haven’t put her on a scale – just visually, she’s tucked up a little bit,” he explained.

“But, she looks fit and good. She eats everything like a bull. You cannot put anything in front of her that she won’t eat.”

Mott also was asked why he has come back on three separate occasions since that historic triumph with Cigar, with his subsequent reply implying the competitive contest is somewhat more alluring than the colossal amounts of cash.

“The purse is obviously always an attraction, but it’s only part of it,” the Hall of Famer commented. “The attraction is coming to compete and win the race and that’s what it has always been for me. The prize money that you get is always the icing on the cake.

“It’s just a big challenge. It’s the biggest prize in racing right now, so – if you like competition – that’s where you want to be.”

He added: “You’ve got to have a horse in the barn that you think is good enough to come and she was a champion filly and a Breeders Cup winner.

“She has earned her way into it. It’s not like we’ve just imagined that she’s good enough. She’s put the race record behind her and done what we’ve asked her to do at home.

“Now, the challenge is how do you match up with the international field, so that’s really what this is all about.”

alex@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE