Meydan Racecourse
Photo courtesy Dubai Racing Club - Andrew Watkins
Since initially sending horses to compete in the Dubai World Cup
Carnival’s final night of racing, Coolmore has accumulated a runner-up
performance in the Dubai Sheema Classic with St. Nicholas Abbey in 2012, and
two exceptional fourth-place performances in the two previous renewals of the
Dubai World Cup. On March 30th,
Coolmore aspires to take the $6 million winner’s share of the $10 million Dubai
World Cup, as well as a hefty payoff with Daddy Long Legs who will likely go
off at high odds.
Nominated for four other races on the Dubai World Cup card, Daddy
Long Legs was demoted to the occupation of Coolmore’s rabbit following the 2012
Kentucky Derby. In the summer campaign
that followed, his last three starts brought a fourth out of ten in Power’s
Irish 2,000 Guineas, and a last place in both the Secretariat Stakes and the
Irish Champion Stakes.
Now as he comes into his four year old season, Daddy Long Legs
enters the Dubai World Cup as a possible poster-child for his sire Scat Daddy,
who currently stands at Coolmore’s American farm, Ashford Stud. The Michael Tabor colorbearing Daddy Long Legs
could propel Scat Daddy to leading sire status by punctuating his impressive
first batch of three-year-olds from 2012 as a world-class winner.
Daddy Long Legs was an outstanding representative of the Scat
Daddy progeny from the outset; he won at first asking and then finished fourth
beaten by 2 ¾ lengths in his stakes debut.
He rebounded to win the Group II Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes with a 3 ¼
length score.
The red colt closed his juvenile campaign on a sour note with a
twelfth out of thirteen in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. He was fractious in the gates positioned
before a crowd of 80,000. After a slow
break, he fought Ryan Moore’s leaden hand of restraint. Daddy Long Legs eventually settled, but got
over the conventional dirt track poorly and was displeased with the kickback.
Daddy Long Legs made his three-year-old debut in spectacular
fashion, winning the Dubai World Cup Carnival’s UAE Derby for trainer Aidan
O’Brien. He forcefully traveled over the
tapeta surface with the grand reach of his front and back legs, making for an
efficient trip over the 1 1/8 mile distance.
Daddy Long Legs preparing for 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs
Photo courtesy Tom Ferry
Just over a month following this impressive performance at Meydan,
Coolmore shipped the colt to once again face the unkind dirt oval and huge
crowds at Churchill Downs for the 2012 Kentucky Derby. Unable
to overcome his distaste for the Louisville track, he was pulled up late on the
backstretch after getting over the surface poorly. Daddy Long Legs was then
sent forth as a rabbit for a group of important races, and now enters 2013 with
a lifetime record of nine starts and three wins.
Daddy Long Legs has returned to Dubai, the place where he enjoyed
his career’s most glorious win, to prepare for the world’s richest race: the
Dubai World Cup. Coolmore wisely sent
him into training with the currently U.A.E-based Mike de Kock, giving the colt
an optimal opportunity to excel by avoiding the physical consequences of
shipping shortly before the race.
Training well for his new conditioner, Daddy Long Legs is expected to
run on February 21st in the Al Fahdi Fort, though no solid plans
have been established. If he is a
non-starter in the Al Fahdi Fort, he would probably compete in a race on Super
Saturday.
A 2013 Dubai World Cup ending with a victorious Daddy Long Legs
could remind racegoers of Vincent O’Brien’s historic empire-building betting
successes. The son of Scat Daddy seems
likely to go to the post unheeded by the oddsmaker, and may be an astute
investment for punters to back in the Dubai World Cup.
Nice article on a horse who it seems has not been given a real chance to fulfill his full potential. Let's hope his affinity for the Meydan racecourse will allow him to get back on track to success. The opposite seems to happen to American runners in recent years who have gone from being stars in the U.S. to being "also rans" in Dubai. I don't know why, but whenever I see that an American star is being sent to Dubai to vie for the huge purses of World Cup Day, I immediately feel a sense of foreboding and wish they wouldn't go. Would love for you to address what has happened to American horses being able to achieve success in that venue. Not just the World Cup, but all the main event races on World Cup Day. Was it the change from dirt to synthetic? Is it a climate change? Is it that nearly all of our American horses are used to running on raceday meds that aren't allowed elsewhere? Or is it just my imagination and has nothing really changed, just that the pendulum has temporarily shifted in a different direction?
ReplyDeleteFantastic comment! Thank you for taking the time to read my article and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I share your feelings about watching some of our horses go over! However, I'm optimistic this year with Animal Kingdom, who I’ve written a feature about for the next print edition of the International Racehorse. It should be out next week. I've always felt he was of a world-class type. The recent performances of Americans in the DWC are quite an interesting subject and I attribute it to the surface switch. Of the 17 renewals of the Dubai World Cup, American-trained runners have won eight. All of the winners came on dirt and we haven't done quite well since the switch to tapeta. From my speculations, the UAE-based runners seem to perform best with the Europeans a contentious second. Hopefully this is our year with Animal Kingdom!
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