Nad Al Sheba

[Driftwood]

Anyone interested?.......The betting market does'nt start until the 17th....the highlight of the year IMO.

[imaufo]

whats on?

[Steppin Short]

Classiest Dubai International Racing Carnival yet


The 2008 Dubai International Racing Carnival starts on Thursday with a record number of top-rated horses set to compete in the world’s most international festival of racing.

The first of 10 meetings gets underway this week with the opening rounds of the Maktoum Challenge, culminating with the Super Thursday fixture on March 6, which then leads into the biggest day of racing in the global calendar, the Dubai World Cup meeting, staged on March 29.
Prize-money of more than US$31million will be on offer at Nad Al Sheba during this period.

An impressive 36 per cent of all horses accepted for the Carnival are rated 105 or above – the international parameter for a horse who is Group class – which is six per cent up on the previous year.

Of the 263 horses who were accepted, there are 23 individual horses who were successful at Group 1 level in 2007, compared to 18 the previous year.

Nineteen countries are due to be represented in the Carnival and some star names to look out for include Youmzain, Eagle Mountain, Oracle West, Quijano, Asiatic Boy, Linngari, Yellowstone, Sushisan, Majestic Roi, Halicarnassus, Latency and Kildonan.

Dubai Racing Club CEO Mr Frank Gabriel Jr said: “Judging by the horses accepted for this year’s Carnival, which starts on Thursday, the 2008 renewal will be the best yet.

“In total, the Dubai Racing Club has accepted applications from 94 trainers spanning 19 countries and the Carnival will look to build on the success of last year’s event which was hailed as a truly groundbreaking spectacle.

“The top-class action and wide international representation means the spotlight of the racing world will be firmly fixed on Nad Al Sheba over the next 10 meetings before the season culminates with the Dubai World Cup meeting on March 29.

“Of course, this wonderful event would not be possible without the kindness and generosity of our much-valued partners.

“Our sponsors for the Dubai International Racing Carnival include Derrinstown Stud, DUBAL, Shadwell Farm USA, Gulf News, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Etisalat, Al Tayer Motors and Shadwell Estate UK, plus the Carnival’s official airline, Emirates, and the Dubai Racing Club is indebted to their support.”

The format for the Carnival remains largely the same, although Super Thursday on March 6 is now staged a week later than in previous years, to mark the finale of the Carnival before the Dubai World Cup meeting.

The Super Thursday fixture started out as a dress rehearsal for the US$21 million Dubai World Cup meeting, with the race conditions mirroring those of the big day itself.

But it has now grown into one of the top international fixtures in its own right, and last year saw two winners in Asiatic Boy and Quijano, who went on to even greater feats, with the former triumphing the UAE Derby, and the German star winning his country’s premier race.

Off the track, the second and third editions of the BurJuman Fillies & Fashion, the Carnival Style Stakes and the Super Thursday Style Stakes, will be staged at the race meetings on February 28 and March 6, with nearly AED70,000 of prizes to be won.

The Best Dressed Lady competition is the feature prize on both nights, and includes a three-day stay for two, with return flights, courtesy of Chiva Som in Thailand and the Dubai Racing Club, and BurJuman shopping vouchers to the value of more than AED10,000.

There are also prizes on offer for the Best Dressed Couple and Best Hat winners, making the event a must-attend in the social calendar.

There will be added interest this Carnival too, with the revamped Pick 7 competition, which with its anticipated weekly rollovers, will mean players will have the chance to win big.

[Driftwood]

The World Cup should go to Curling, but at 16/1 I think Daiwa Scarlet is a good e/w bet.

[imaufo]

Good luck with your horses. :)

I see Darren Beadman has a ride in the first for HK. Watch what happens at 100-1.

[imaufo]

Odds-on favourite Curlin blitzed the rest of the field to win the Dubai World Cup, the world's richest race.

The US Horse of the Year, ridden by Robby Albarado, was up with the pace from the start and accelerated superbly when called on for an effort.

He kicked well clear of Asiatic Boy and Well Armed after they turned into the home straight.

With the £3m-race won, Albrado urged his mount on again to the line as they claimed a comfortable victory.

It added to his success in the Breeders Cup Classic in Monmouth Park last year and he is now the favourite to retain his title later this year.

"He's such an amazing horse and I'm proud to be around him," said Albarado. "It went as well as expected - I was just a passenger, I just get all the glory.


Curlin coup may herald new era in world racing

http://www.ntra.com/content.aspx?type=news&id=31640

Watch the video here

Curlin's victory in the Dubai World Cup was achieved without the race-day drugs habitually used by American horses

Greg WoodMarch 31, 2008 12:00 AM

When Cigar won the inaugural running of the Dubai World Cup in 1996, there were many who saw him as the herald for a new era in Flat racing. Sheikh Mohammed's bottomless prize fund would tempt America's finest horses to the Gulf, everyone else would pitch up, and racing would become the next truly global sport.

It did not turn out quite like that, but then, change comes slowly to racing. Attitudes are deeply ingrained and the calendar well established, while horses conceived this spring will not reach their Classic season until 2012.

But while Cigar was not the first of a new breed - in any sense, in fact, as he proved to be infertile - the same is not necessarily true of Curlin. America's Horse of the Year was magnificent here in the Dubai World Cup on Saturday, a snarling streetfighter of a horse who was a class apart from the moment he entered the parade ring.

Curlin has an odd tilt to his head, both before and during a race, which suggests that his right eye may be rather better than the left. Everything else, though, works just as nature intended, and he grabs the track with an aggression that seems to subdue his opponents even before the acceleration kicks in.

That finishing speed took him nearly eight lengths clear of Asiatic Boy, beating the record margin set by Dubai Millennium eight years ago, and even that was not a full measure of his superiority. And he did it "clean", without the race-day drugs that are endemic in American racing.

This could be where Curlin becomes the first horse to ride a wave that simply wasn't there for Cigar. In 1996, no one in America could see an end to racing on the harsh dirt surfaces that encouraged the widespread use of medication in the first place, since it was so difficult to keep horses sound enough to race. Dubai was a novelty, nothing more.

Now, the momentum towards artificial surfaces is gathering speed, and eventually, the incentive to use medication should diminish. It will take closer to 10 years than two, if indeed it happens at all. It may yet turn out that America is too hooked on drugs and dirt to join the international party, and without them, racing can never call itself a truly global sport.

But if horses like Curlin can continue to advertise their potential value, there will be an obvious incentive for breeders to produce more of the same. With this in mind, Curlin's next race may also be significant. A winner's purse of $3.6m was a massive return on the investment by his owners, but his trip to the Middle East can be judged a complete success only if he returns home in the same shape he left.

Curlin won so easily on Saturday night that he barely had a race, and it will be surprising if he turns out to have left his best form behind in the desert. As Steve Asmussen, his trainer, said afterwards: "He's spoiled us with his consistency and brilliance. Pre-race the horse was in great shape and he stepped from the stalls and just spoiled us again." Curlin is due to ship home on April 6, and Asmussen has no schedule mapped out for him at present.

Benny The Bull and Diamond Stripes were also winners on the card for American yards, while South Africa took the other three races on a night when Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin operation drew a blank for the second year running.

This is hardly encouraging for Godolphin, although their best three-year-olds, as well as last year's standard-bearer Ramonti, are waiting for other targets. But it was excellent news for Mike de Kock, who had a double with Honour Devil and Sun Classique and is preparing to bring many of his Dubai-based team to Britain for a summer and autumn campaign.

De Kock admitted this week that many of his horses may need a break after Dubai and he expects them to be most competitive later on in the European season. If nothing else, his arrival in Newmarket may act as a reminder to some of the locals that racing is now being conducted on a worldwide stage. Just seven British-trained horses made the trip for the sport's richest card, which seems a dismal effort when there are trainers in the town organising boycotts to protest at prize-money levels in Britain.

http://afp.google.com/media/ALeqM5iAqFKvKbNjQ1kU6v0J7TC6eOYymg?size=s

From Sheikh Mohammed's point of view, meanwhile, though the performance of Godolphin's runners was disappointing, the meeting as a whole could not have gone much better.

He can see his immense new racecourse at Meydan rising out of the desert. He must also sense the currents in international racing that are moving in his direction.

If the Sheikh is not considering his options for 2010 and beyond, and thinking in lavish, mould-breaking terms, then he has lost his appetite for a grand scheme. There are hundreds of cranes on the Dubai skyline that suggest otherwise.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/03/31/curlin_coup_may_herald_new_era.html