Stunned Bhupat Seemar 'still coming to terms' with Dubai World Cup glory

The 28th edition of the Dubai World Cup will forever be remembered as Bhupat Seemar and Tadhg O’Shea's day.

The Zabeel Stables trainer and jockey racked-up a double, rounding off the nine-race card meeting with Laurel River scooping the $12 million Dubai World Cup after their triumph with Tuz earlier in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan on Saturday.

Seemar earned a slice of the prize monies in the $1 million Godolphin Mile when Walk Of Stars (O’Shea) and Southern Artist (Antonio Fresu) finished second and fourth, respectively.

Mendelssohn Bay and Leading Spirit were also in the money when placed fourth in the $1 million UAE Derby and sixth in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen, both ridden by Patrick Cosgrave.

“I’m still coming to terms with what’s happened,” Seemar said of Laurel River's win at the post-race conference.

“I think it’ll probably sink in another day or two. It’s absolutely amazing. Tadhg said this morning ‘we’re drawn 12, I’m not going to be two-minded about it, I’m going to go forward.’

“He’s got so much natural pace. He comes out of the gate and this is why we ran him over six furlongs [in the Al Shindagha Sprint].

“Tadhg was able to get some easy fractions and then I saw Defunded coming on his outside but he just kept on going further. I expected to see all the closers flying at him but he kept going.

“I was a small kid when I was watching these colours [Juddmonte] winning some of the biggest races in the world.

“What the late Prince Khalid Abdullah has done for racing is amazing, I couldn’t believe I was going to be training the horse for that farm and in those colours. And now to win one of the world’s great races for them is unbelievable.”

Just over two hours earlier, O’Shea and Seemar