Dubai Turf trials: Mutakayyef to show credentials in England’s Winter Derby

As an idea of how highly-regarded Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s Mutakayyef is, Jim Crowley has foregone the chance to ride any of his retainer’s 11 horses at Meydan on Saturday to fly to England.

Mutakayyef, centre and shown at a 2016 race in New York, makes his seasonal bow in the Winter Derby at Lingfield Park. Alan Crowhurst / Getty Images
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These are heady times, indeed. Just two days after Mike de Kock’s Mubtaahij prepped adequately at Meydan Racecourse for next month’s Dubai World Cup and Godolphin got closer to sorting out their runners for the UAE Derby, we have three trials in three different countries for the US$6 million (Dh22m) Dubai Turf on March 25.

As an idea of how highly-regarded Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s Mutakayyef is, Jim Crowley has foregone the chance to ride any of his retainer’s 11 horses at Meydan on Saturday to fly to England.

Mutakayyef makes his seasonal bow in the Winter Derby at Lingfield Park, and the 38-year-old rider will be in the irons.

The six-year-old, trained by William Haggas in Newmarket, takes on nine rivals in the 2,000-metre contest, staged on a Polytrack surface.

The son of 2009 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sea The Stars will hardly be 100 per cent, given he has not run since he chased home Tepin and Tower Of Texas in the Woodbine Mile in Canada in September.

Mubtaahij did not make a successful return to action in the Curlin Handicap on Thursday, but Mutakayyef may well be too good anyway despite Haggas clearly eyeing the riches in Dubai.

“Everything is good and I believe everyone is happy with him at home,” said Angus Gold, the Minister Of Finance’s racing manager. “He is a horse who seems to be better for a run, mentally as much as physically.

“I’m not saying he’s not ready enough to win, but I’m sure whatever he does on Saturday he’ll improve from it as he’s not the sort of horse you can just point and push – he takes a bit of winding up.

“In a perfect world I think we’d have preferred to run him over a furlong shorter first time out, but there just wasn’t a suitable opportunity to do so.

“He does stay a mile and a quarter, but it could be argued that his best form is over a mile, so we’ll see what happens.”

Mutakayyef and Real Steel vie for favouritism for the Dubai Turf just behind last week’s impressive Dubai Millennium Stakes winner Zarak and Godolphin’s Ribchester, who has not run since going down all guns blazing to Aidan O’Brien’s Minding on British Champions Day at Ascot in October.

Real Steel, the defending Dubai Turf champion, will mark his return on Sunday morning by trying to beat 10 rivals in the Grade 2 Nakayama Kinen. Among the cast of those hoping to beat him in the 1,800-metre contest is Neorealism, who holds entries to the World Cup and Sheema Classic, as well as the globe-trotting Nuovo Record, who is also in the Dubai Turf and Sheema Classic. Vivlos, who holds a nomination to World Cup night’s 2,400-metre turf contest, also lines up.

And then there is Werther, John Moore’s Hong Kong Horse of the Year who is hoping to punch his ticket to the Dubai Turf in the Group 1 Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin later on Sunday morning.

Werther has no easy task trying to best top-level winners in Beauty Only, Designs On Rome and Blazing Speed, and like so many trainers at this stage of the season Moore has only one race in mind right now.

“I did enter the horse for Dubai, thinking it was a possibility if we got him going well enough in time and I think we have,” said Moore, who has cast aside any ideas of bringing last month’s Stewards’ Cup winner Helene Paragon to Meydan.

He added in the South China Morning Post: "He has only had the one run back after injury, which was excellent, but his work has been good.

“I expect him to run very close and be even better for it if he gets an invitation for the Dubai Turf.”

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