On Saturday at 15:05 Søren Jensen-trained Taifuu will try to become the second Danish-owned classic winner at Meydan when she lines up with Oliver Wilson in the Jumeirah 1000 Guineas (L) over 1600 metres on turf. Michael Jakobsen and Peter Rasmussen’s three-year-old filly is a clear favourite with the international bookmakers, and the Racing Post points to her as well.
At Bet365 you can, at the time of writing on Friday evening, get odds of 2.5 about the Stutteri Hjortebo-bred Japan filly, while Fairy Oak (A’Ali) and True Test (Time Test) return 3.25 and 3.5 times the stake respectively.
Veronika Jandová-trained Sweet Sunshine (Iffraaj) is, according to Bet365, fifth favourite at 23 times the money.
Even with the red and white glasses tucked away at the bottom of the drawer, Taifuu is definitely a worthy favourite for Saturday’s 1000 Guineas in Dubai.
She beat six of her seven rivals with great authority in the trial, the Mawj Stakes over 1400 metres, on 30 January. And that was in a 14-horse field, where she broke from the unfavourable stall 12 and had a long trip without cover.
Taifuu has this time drawn the widest stall, but that is still a rather better starting position than last time, and on top of that the extra 200 metres should be nothing but an advantage.
The only rival in the 1000 Guineas field that Taifuu has not met – and beaten – is James Owen-trained Callahan (Lope Y Fernandez), who shed her maiden tag at the third attempt at Kempton back at the end of October, and who on her seasonal debut at Meydan finished 11th past the post – a good three lengths behind Niels Petersen-trained Bruce Almighty (Appel Au Maitre), who was ninth in the same race.
The Jumeirah 1000 Guineas (L) is worth a first prize of around 830,000 Danish kroner, and Taifuu is chasing her fourth win in a row, having ended her two-year-old season last year with victories in the Svealandlöpning and Vinterfavoriternas Pris at Bro Park.
Below you can watch Taifuu and Oliver Wilson winning the Mawj Stakes on 30 January again:
You can follow the whole of Meydan’s Super Saturday live from the GalopSport front page – the first race is off at 14:30, after which Taifuu and Sweet Sunshine go to post at 15:05.
After that it is Bent Olsen’s Dubai Sprint (L) winner Great Wish (Night Of Thunder) in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint (Gr.3) at 15:50 and Fredrik Reuterskiöld-trained Lamborghini BF (Holy Roman Emperor) in the Mahab Al Shimaal (Gr.3) at 16:25.
