The first turf race on the Dubai World Cup card at Meydan on Saturday features the leading candidate with the biggest edge on ratings over their rivals anywhere on the night.
For supporters of Subjectivist – notably his patient and resourceful Dubai-based owner Dr Jim Walker and the staff at Charlie Johnston’s Yorkshire base – it has been a long road to get back to the scene of his scintillating victory in the 2021 edition of this race; an injury to his superficial flexor tendon shortly after winning the Ascot Gold Cup of that year meant nine months of intensive water therapy and walking on a water treadmill.
Giavellotto is among a clutch of younger stayers aiming to lay it down to Subjectivist and the established names in the Gold Cup (Pic – Dubai Racing Club/Liesl King)
In emotional terms, a second Dubai Gold Cup would provide those around Subjectivist with an enormous high; none more so than jockey Joe Fanning, two thirds of whose career Group 1 victories have both come in partnership with the son of Teofilo.
After such a long time off it was perhaps not surprising that Subjectivist somewhat ‘shot his bolt’ on his comeback in the Red Sea Turf Handicap last month.
Charlie Johnston’s father and now assistant, Mark, is hopeful that the class edge the “old” Subjectivist would have enjoyed over these rivals remains intact – remember he was giving 8lb an upwards to his rivals under handicap conditions in Saudi Arabia – whilst being acutely realistic that, even if he is back somewhere near his best, there may only be a few dances left for this classy stayer.
Mark Johnston said: “It’s a very good race on Saturday, but there’s been no better staying races than the Ascot Gold Cup he won two years ago, and it’s probably no better than the Gold Cup he won here. It’s down to whether he’s able to come back and perform as he used to.”
There is officially a 5lb gap back to the best of the rest but the Aidan O’Brien-trained Broome is a fascinating rival now that he belatedly tries 3,200m, after a career spent predominantly at 2,400m and which features victories in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud of 2021 and last year’s G2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Drawn right on the rail in stall one, don’t expect to see Ryan Moore go anywhere other than the shortest way round and, if his stamina lasts when he enters unknown territory, Brrome’s mile and a half class would become a serious threat to all.
The form horses coming in here are Enemy – who ran an excellent race in chasing home the Japanese-trained winner of the Red Sea, Silver Sonic, as well as the principals from the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy here on February 17; namely Siskany for Charlie Appleby, Al Nayyir for Doug Watson and, sandwiched between the two, Ardakan.
The last-named is joined by his Marco Botti stablemate Giavellotto, who could still have plenty of upside having been promoted to third following a rough passage in the St Leger last season.
“Ardakan is in very good form, he’s had a couple of runs in Dubai so he’s race fit and he’s adapted quite well,” said Botti. “He settles well in his races and we’ve got Damian Lane on board this time, who’s a very good and experienced jockey, so we couldn’t be happier with him.
Botti added: “Giavellotto came over last Saturday and travelled well. Obviously he spent the winter in England and it was important that he didn’t have a prep race, simply because we had a race in mind that was a bit too close to his flight. We decided just to give him a racecourse gallop at Chelmsford instead, so he’s fit and well.”
Giavellotto has inherited stall 15 with the defection of the Andre Fabre-trained Sober but things might still need to fall right for him.
El Habeeb caught Giavellotto in the shadow of the post at Ascot on the pair’s final start of last season and is a first Dubai World Cup night runner for a rising star of the Newmarket training ranks, Kevin Philippart de Foy.
Fellow four-year-old Al Qareem looked good winning the G2 Prix Chaudenay over Arc weekend and arguably didn’t cope with the three-week turnaround and a second long trip to a very soft Longchamp in the G1 Prix Royal-Oak, while you can put a line through his luckless reappearance in the Saudi race.
Looking further back from those that ran in Riyadh, Get Shirty finished well to be third from a wide draw and is better off here in stall six, though he is 5lb worse off with Enemy, while the Henk Grewe-trained Sisfahan could progress from what was a first try at extreme trips.
Of the established staying brigade, the 115-rated Quickthorn is best-placed to take advantage of any chinks in the armour of Subjectivist or Broome, while the Godolphin hand is further strengthened by Global Storm (Appleby), Passion And Glory (Saeed Bin Suroor) and Trawlerman (John and Thady Gosden).
