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

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.

He is just one stall inside Country Grammer, however, and at the likely odds, T O Keynes (4.35) could prove to be the pick of the Japanese contenders and give Oisin Murphy his first big-race success since returning from a 14-month suspension.

Daisuke Takayanagi’s six-year-old was half a length behind Ushba Tesoro, who is also in Saturday’s field, at Kawasaki in February but did not get much luck in running there and Murphy can be trusted to make the most of his excellent draw in stall six.

Newbury 1.30 Pearly Island showed a decent turn of foot to win