Declarations have now been made for this coming Saturday’s Dubai World Cup day at Meydan. Bent Olsen-trained Great Wish runs at 15:20 in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint over 1200 metres on turf, and it will be with Brazilian Silvestre de Sousa in the irons.
With his official rating of 109 Great Wish (Night Of Thunder) is joint fifth in the ratings – he shares his mark with Cover Up (Exceed And Excel) and Native Approach (Too Darn Hot).
The highest rated is the French runner Lazzat (Territories), who is rated five pounds above William Buick’s mount, Reef Runner (The Big Beast).
Lazzat and Reef Runner met on 14 February in the Saudi Cup Turf Sprint (Gr.2) in Riyadh, where they fought it out head to head to the line with the latter coming out on top.
Great Wish also has to face the Japanese runner Lugal (Duramente) and the English runner Khaadem (Dark Angel), who are both previous Group 1 winners.
It is no secret that this year’s World Cup fields have been hard hit by the war in the Middle East.
Only six runners have been declared for the Dubai Sheema Classic (Gr.1) over 2400 metres on turf, but the race will still be well worth watching with both the Longines World’s Best Racehorse 2025, the French runner Calandagan (Gleneagles), and Ireland’s Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr.1) winner Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) in the line-up.
The main event, the Dubai World Cup (Gr.1), looks on the face of it like a one-man show for the Japanese runner Forever Young (Real Steel), who is rated five kilos above Steve Asmussen’s Magnitude (Not This Time) and last year’s winner, Brad Cox-trained Hit Show (Candy Ride).
