Dubai Carnival beads: World Cup night landscape after Super Saturday, II

Continuing the discussion from Vol. I, focusing on the Dubai World Cup...

Polar River photo courtesy Dubai Racing Club/Andrew Watkins.

UAE DERBY

The 3-year-old male division has been weak all Carnival, an impression that wasn’t dispelled by Market Rally in the about 1 3/16-mile Al Bastakiya. Although he repeated his front-running heroics from the UAE 2000 Guineas (G3), the Dhruba Selvaratnam trainee was a basket case early. He was dripping in lather, pulling with his head in the air. And considering how lightning fast the dirt was on Super Saturday (producing two track records), note his final time of 1:58.52 was nearly two seconds off Frosted’s mark. Market Rally beat only three rivals, two of whom (Blue Creek and Hombre Rojo) pulled up lame. Runner-up Lazzam bravely fought against the bias, despite covering almost 33 extra feet according to Trakus. I’ll be surprised if Market Rally completes a sweep of the local Triple Crown in the UAE Derby (G2).

 

By contrast, the 3-year-old fillies have been superb, led by unbeaten Polar River, who turned a classic double in Thursday’s UAE Oaks (G3). But the Doug Watson filly wasn’t at all dominant on the step up from the metric mile of the UAE 1000 Guineas to about 1 3/16 miles. As she appeared to be tiring late, and jockey Pat Dobbs let her coast, Mike de Kock’s Argentinean import Vale Dori rallied to within three-quarters of a length. The final time of 2:00.57 was slow, a function of the risible pace.

You could read this two ways: Polar River’s stamina was stretched to its limit, befitting a speedy daughter of Congrats, or she was understandably slowing after sprinting from the six-furlong to the mile mark in :23.55. That burst past Vale Dori was the winning move in a farcically run race.

But Polar River had physical reasons not to be at her best. As Jonathan Lintner relayed in the Courier-Journal, Watson told the blog talk radio show “Racetrackers” that Polar River had “niggling little problems through the week.” And a tooth extraction put her off her feed recently.

Vale Dori herself rates a prime contender on World Cup night. I think she would have won the Al Bastakiya if she’d taken up her cross-entry there. De Kock had cautioned beforehand that she’d had setbacks since arriving in Dubai. Facing Polar River off a 10-month layoff and a compromised preparation, and spotting her 10 pounds, the Group 1 heroine ran unbelievably well. If she turns the tables, her sire Asiatic Boy would become the first UAE Derby winner to sire one.