Talking Horses: T O Keynes can scupper Dettori in Dubai World Cup

24.03.2023 - 20:09 theguardian.com

T he second significant stopping-off point on Frankie Dettori’s global farewell tour is the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan on Saturday evening, when he will attempt to follow up last year’s success in the feature event aboard Bob Baffert’s Country Grammer.

Dettori and Country Grammer finished second behind Panthalassa in the $20m (£16.4m) Saudi Cup last month and he has already landed £8.25m in just three rides aboard the six-year-old, which means Country Grammer will overtake Enable as the highest earner of Dettori’s career if he lands the spoils on Saturday.

He stayed on well over nine furlongs last time out and will be suited by a return to the World Cup’s 10-furlong trip but he has a wide draw in stall 14 to overcome and faces a competitive and international field of opponents, including Algiers, from Simon and Ed Crisford’s Newmarket stable, and no fewer than eight contenders from Japan.

Crisford, who was Godolphin’s racing manager when Dettori landed his first World Cup on Dubai Millennium in 2000, has flourished as a trainer since 2015 and Algiers, a relatively lightly raced for a six-year-old, has been impressive in two wins on the Meydan dirt earlier in the year.

Sporting cup Bob Baffert Frankie Dettori Japan Dubai Saudi Arabia

K eith Dalgleish has sent out more than 950 winners from his stable in South Lanarkshire since 2011, but said in February that he intends to hand in his licence later this year to “do other things for a while”, and that his 1,000th winner “might be a good time to go out”.

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