One of the more admirable performers this season has been HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Waady, a hard-knocking sprinter who hails from the yard of leading trainer Doug Watson.
The front-runner returns to turf this evening after three excellent runs on dirt and warrants a good look by analysts—especially given his past successes, including a win in the 2015 Gr3 Sprint Stakes at Sandown.
The task at hand for the 7-year-old son of Approve is the 1000m $175,000 Listed Dubai Dash down the straight turf chute in front of the Meydan Grandstand.
“We’re going to give it a go with him,” Watson said. “He’s improved so much mentally and that’s really helped him improve on dirt. He’s rated about 100 on dirt and we think we should give him a chance to get his rating back up on turf. He used to be rated about 109 or so on the grass back in Europe. The way he’s moved forward mentally, it would be nice to see if he’s changed all-around—plus his forte used to be five furlongs on the turf. He’s a Group winner, he’s doing great and he just really likes to run.”
Waady began the season on 7 November with a good-looking defeat of Pop the Hood, who would go on to win sharply last Saturday over the same 1200m.
Sent off at 14/1 on the international market that day, he did not get much more respect next out in the Listed Garhoud Sprint, but still ran a fine second to Ibn Malik, one start before finishing fourth in the Gr3 Dubawi on 2 January astern Gladiator King, Ibn Malik and Drafted.
Mike de Kock’s Majestic Mambo, who ran a fair third behind Benbatl when in need of the run a fortnight ago, runs in the first of six races at 16h30.
