Great Wish has given his trainer Bent Olsen a dream start to the 2026 racing year. But it may turn into a great deal more. Great Wish has received an invitation to take part in the Al Quoz Sprint (Gr.1) at Meydan on 28 March. RaceTime has talked to Bent Olsen, who has just come home from war-torn Dubai. About Great Wish, about the extended stay in Dubai and about the expectations for the coming season in Scandinavia.
GREAT WISH IN FULL FLIGHT.
With his two fine performances in Dubai, Great Wish (Night Of Thunder) can already look back on a fine season.
This year alone 640,000 kroner have so far come into the bank account, and Great Wish has become a millionaire in earnings.
But, but – it may turn into a great deal more.
When RaceTime visited Bent Olsen in the stable at Klampenborg on Wednesday after his return to Denmark from Dubai, Bent was able to report that Great Wish stays in Dubai right into April.
”Yes, Great Wish has been invited to take part in the Al Quoz Sprint (Gr.1) over 1200 metres on turf at Meydan on World Cup day on 28 March”, Bent said.
”And far from everyone gets such an invitation, and on top of that you are told very late whether it is coming”.
The Al Quoz Sprint was run for the first time in 2007. Last year Coolmore’s Believing (Mehmas) won with William Buick in the saddle.
Among previous winners is Godolphin’s Blue Point (Shamardal), who won in 2019 and later the same year took the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (Gr.1) at Ascot.
The total prize money in the Al Quoz Sprint is 1.5 million US dollars with 870,000 to the winner.
And in the nine races on World Cup day there is a total of 30.5 million US dollars in prize money. To the winner of the Dubai World Cup alone there is 7 million US dollars.
BENT HOPES GREAT WISH CAN GO WITH THEM.
Bent Olsen expects Great Wish to meet many of the same horses he competed against last time in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint (Gr.3), where he was fourth.
”And there he had an unlucky race”, Bent noted. ”He came away badly from the start, and he got a poor position in the middle of the field on the way round. With a better race he could have been right up there”.
”So if the horses we are to meet are not much better than last time, I hope that Great Wish can be up there. And that would be historic for a Scandinavian-trained horse in a Group 1 race.”
In that connection Bent has great praise for Tine ”Polly” Hansen and Andreas Tapia Dalbark, who are the two who have looked after Great Wish and trained him during his stay in Dubai.
Bent does not yet know who is to ride Great Wish in the Al Quoz Sprint.
”Several have already shown interest in the ride. And in Dubai on World Cup day many of the world’s best jockeys are of course present”.
AN INVOLUNTARILY LONG STAY IN DUBAI.
Bent Olsen was not in Dubai when Great Wish won, but he was this time, and it became a very special experience.
On the same day as Super Saturday was held at Meydan, the USA and Israel started the bombardment of Iran, which responded with retaliatory attacks on, among other places, Dubai.
Bent Olsen describes his experience like this:
”There has not been war in Denmark for more than 80 years, and then all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a war. I had not imagined that”.
”We were close to where there were drone attacks, and when the ground began to shake beneath us, I was damn well frightened. In our world you can usually press a button and then it stops. But this just carried on”.
The war in the Middle East led to an involuntary stay for Bent in Dubai of a good week, where Bent stayed at a resort at Meydan together with other Scandinavian trainers, owners and jockeys.
It was Susanne Springer who arranged for Bent to get back to Denmark on Monday via Poland with Emirates and from Warsaw to Copenhagen with SAS.
”Will you go down there again when Great Wish is due to run on World Cup day?”, I asked Bent.
”Yes”, Bent answered. ”I believe it will be under control by then”.
LONE WOULD HAVE LOVED IT.
Several times during the conversation Bent mentioned that it would have been an unforgettable experience for the late Lone Kaj-Nielsen to see her Night Of Thunder son Great Wish take part in a Group 1 race at Meydan.
”It would have been everything she dreamed of”, Bent said, and told of an episode when he and Lone had been in Dubai.
”Lone had watched Mickael Barzalona ride, and she mentioned in that connection that if they could ever get him to ride for them, then that would be fine”.
”And”, Bent added, ”sadly Lone did not live to see Barzalona win at Meydan with Great Wish”.
”And sadly she does not get to see how many of her expensively bought horses are now doing at stud”.
One of them is Red Cactus, who is having success as a stallion, and who came close to giving Lone Kaj-Nielsen and Bent Olsen a winning success in Dubai.
In 2019 Red Cactus (Hard Spun) was third in the UAE 2000 Guineas (Gr.3) on dirt and the following year second in the Strata Trophy on turf.
”Perhaps the Night Of Thunder son Great Wish will one day be a stallion”, Bent said.
”He has a fine pedigree, he is beautiful, and there could well be a need for a top sprinter as a stallion in Scandinavia”.
GREAT WISH IN CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT.
Great Wish was unraced as a 2-year-old, when he picked up an injury early in the season. He won on his second start as a 3-year-old, and it became three wins in all that year, when Great Wish ended the year with a general handicap of 83.
The big breakthrough came as a 4-year-old, when Great Wish concentrated on the sprint distances. He won three of his four starts at Klampenborg. The only defeat came on Derby day, when he was beaten in a close battle with Aphelios (Kodiac).
Great Wish rose 10 kilos in the handicap last year, and after the win in the Dubai Sprint (L) at Meydan he was raised to 95, which makes him Scandinavia’s highest handicapped horse together with Ami De Vega (Lope De Vega).
Most recently Great Wish was, as is well known, a fine fourth in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint (Gr.3) after a slightly unlucky race, in which he deserved to be further forward.
A STRONG TEAM OF 2-YEAR-OLDS.
Bent Olsen starts the 2026 season in Scandinavia with 33 horses in training.
There are always high expectations of the 2-year-olds and excitement about how much they can do, and Bent believes he may have many potential classic candidates in the stable.
Five of the seven are owned by Stald Spitco, four are bred at Stutteri Hjortebo, and five are by Moohaajim.
Among the 2-year-olds is a half-brother to the Mowerinaløb winner A Lady’s Dream (Giant Sandman), by Moohaajim.
Goodmorningmoo is also by Moohaajim and out of Marie Chez Elle, and Bent believes he can show good results quickly.
Another interesting 2-year-old is Fuerza, who is by Red Cactus, the horse who in Bent Olsen’s training won the Svenskt Derby in 2019.
Red Cactus, who now stands as a stallion at Stutteri Hjortebo, has had good success with his first crop, which we saw on the track last year, among them Red Mantel and Missing.
Casa Cocina’s Fuerza is bred at Stutteri Hjortebo, out of Malegganda and a half-brother to the dual Pokalløb winner Mozart.
Fuerza was bought at the Scandinavian Open Yearling Sale last year for 180,000 kroner.
COOL MAGIC IS A CLASSIC ASPIRANT.
The best chance of a classic triumph for Bent Olsen in 2026 appears at first glance to belong to Cool Racing’s Cool Magic.
She is bred at Stutteri Hjortebo and a half-sister to Zascha (Appel Au Maitre), who won three races in her career.
Cool Magic (Moohaajim) won the year’s first big 2-year-old race, the Stuteri Hjortebo Produce Stakes, before she was second on Derby day in the Goffs Futurity Stakes, beaten by Cosmopolitan (Make Believe) – but ahead of Taifuu (Japan).
”She ended the year with a disappointing effort in Dansk Galops Auktionsløb”, Bent explained. ”But there is an explanation for that, as she lost a shoe during the race and may have twisted a fetlock. She is OK now.”
Bent Olsen reported that her first big target this year will be the Mowerinaløb, where she may meet Taifuu (Japan) and Sweet Sunshine (Ifraaj), but she is also entered in the Jydsk Derby series with, among others, the Petit Prix.
Noble Grey (Kahyl) was a good fourth in the Vinterfavoriternes Ærespræmie last year. He is a half-brother to Grey Eminence, who was third in the Danish St. Leger behind the winner Sandhurst (Havana Grey), also trained by Bent Olsen, and Firstof All (Juniper Tree).
Reina Ambar (Red Cactus) is an interesting unraced filly out of Koo Koo Sint (Mount Nielson), who won the Vinterfavoritternes Ærespræmie in 2012 – incidentally ahead of Falconet (Falco), one of Bent’s best horses of all time.
In the breeding shed Koo Koo Sint is the dam of Kis (Moohaajim), who as a 2-year-old won the Tommy Gustafsson Memorial at Bro Park and the Produce Stakes and the following year was second in the Mowerinaløb, as well as of her full sister Kiss Me Again, who won the Danish Criterium in 2024.
”Reina Ambar has a fine pedigree, but she has struggled with growing pains”, Bent explained.
NO SURRENDER IN OLDER COMPANY.
There are five older horses in the stable with Bent Olsen with a handicap of more than 80.
Besides Great Wish (95) they are Irish Fire (85), King Of Ten (87), No Surrender (86) and Pjerrot (86).
The now older elite furthermore counts last year’s Danish Oaks winner, Happy Legend, and last year’s St. Leger winner Sandhurst.
Bent won three classic races last year, and he emphasised that it is important that we respect and value the classic races as the foundation of the whole sport.
Last year’s Swedish 2000 Guineas winner, Stald Spitco’s No Surrender (Giant Sandman), has been with Great Wish in Dubai, but he has not taken part in any races.
”He got loose in Dubai one day and got a scrape on one hind leg, but he is OK again”, Bent said.
This year he is to concentrate above all on the Breeders’ races, and his first big target will be the Dansk Breeders’ Cup at Klampenborg.
King Of Ten (Ten Sovereigns) won three races in a row at Klampenborg last year and rose eight kilos in the handicap. One of the wins came in the tradition-rich handicap, the Hofjuveler Hertz Ærespræmie.
It was the second year in a row that King Of Ten won the race.
King Of Ten is owned by Douglas & Hansen I/S, and if he manages to win again in 2026, the Douglas and Hansen families win the handsome silver dish outright.
The Danish Oaks winner Happy Legend (Rock Of Gibraltar) will aim at the slightly longer races for older fillies and mares.
And Sandhurst is to try his hand against the older elite over a distance.
First (Moohaajim) was second in the Mowerinaløb behind Wiggle Wine (Go Go Gadget). She won the Petit Prix at Jydsk Væddeløbsbane, and she was third in the Larch Ærespræmie behind Wassim (Zarak) and No Surrender.
”She is a really good horse, and she is also going for the Breeders’ races”, Bent said.
Bent Olsen has made a good start to the year. And as always he has a number of promising horses in the stable that can help him once again – yet again – become the most successful Danish trainer in 2026.
