Meydan gathers steam with fifth DWCC meeting

Dubai - Plenty of quality across yet another cracking seven-race card on Thursday night

The New Year is almost a month down and the horse racing action too is switching gears and is gathering steam.
It is already down to the fifth race meeting of the Dubai World Cup Carnival and Thursday night promises yet another cracking card with plenty of quality across the seven races at the Meydan Racecourse.
First up is a Purebred Arabian race, the only Purebred Arabian contest of the evening. And it is Round 2 of the Al Maktoum Challenge, a 1900 metres race that has Group 1 classification.
The race has 10 runners and Ziyadd, owned by Yas Racing, tops the rating with 115 and is the mount of Richard Mullen. Trained by Jean de Roualle, Ziyadd had finished second to Aatebat Al Khalediah, in his last run at Meydan, last December.
The second race of the evening - the Al Rashidiya Group 2 for thoroughbreds sees Barney Roy make a return.
Barney Roy, winner of the Group 1 St James' Palace Stakes in 2017, is one among four Godolphin runners in the nine-furlong contest.
The six-year-old from Excelebration, who missed the entire 2018 season after a failed experiment at stud, will hope to join the likes of Right Approach, Presvis and Benbatl, who had won this race and went on to triumph in the Group 1 Dubai Turf. Prior to that though, the winner of this contest will negotiate the Group Jebel Hatta on Super Saturday.
"He had that summer campaign in 2019 and we purposely gave him a break with the Carnival in mind," trainer Charlie Appleby said. Barney Roy has not raced since an eighth-place finish at Ascot last June, under James Doyle.
"Where we are at the moment, we are working backward from the Jebel Hatta and obviously Benbatl not being declared now has opened that race," the Englishman added.
Meanwhile, multiple UAE Champion Trainer Doug Watson sends out Drafted to defend the Group 3 Al Shindagha Sprint. The ride of Patrick Dobbs, Drafted will go up against Satish Seemar's Gladiator King.
james@khaleejtimes.com