Curlin is awesome. He's looked the part all week and no one was surprised he set the record for the largest margin of victory in the 13th running of the world's richest horse race. Robby Albarado described his victory to France's Equidia television.
"Curlin is like a limousine and I am along for the ride."
After racing out of the kick back, Curlin advanced three-wide to the top of the stretch and passed early pacesetter Well Armed, the San Antonio Handicap winner, who finished third.
"We are very pleased with his performance," said WinStar racing manager Elliott Walden. The former trainer was non-committal on future plans for Well Armed.
But the night belonged to the South Africans, trainers Mike deKock, pictured below with his family, and Herman Brown, stole the show on racing's biggest night.
Honour Devil took the UAE Derby in fine form over stable companion Royal Vintage to get deKock's night off on the right foot.
The South African parade continued with Jay Peg's stunning victory in the Dubai Duty Free, a race well-admitted by all to be wide open and it was indeed. More stunning, however, is that Jay Peg set the pace, was headed in the stretch by Japanese filly Vodka, and re-rallied en route to a Nad al Sheba course record of 1:46.20 for 1777 meters. Trained by Herman Brown, Jay Peg's win came over an incredibly fast turf course that was in pristine condition. In three prior starts in Dubai this winter, Jay Peg was sixth, third, and second over the same distance as the Duty Free. He finished behind final times of 1:49.1 twice, and 1:49.3 once in those efforts prior to going at least three seconds faster on Saturday night.
Sun Classique, however, may be the amazing story of the evening. Bred and owned by Lionel Cohen, Sun Classique dramatically failed to meet her auction reserve of 300,000 South African Rand (approximately US$37,000) and the top bid barely reached SAR 100,000. Cohen took her home, turned down US$3,000,000 for his homebred after Group 1 successes in South Africa for deKock, and sent her to Dubai. She earned five times that reserve in winning two listed handicaps at Nad al Sheba earlier in the Dubai International Racing Carnival and now takes home the majority of the $5,000,000 Dubai Sheema Classic pot.
Robert Garner of Phumelela Gaming at Turffontein Racecourse in South Africa estimated that the earnings from the wins and placings from Mike deKock's horses equates to about one-third of all the purse money offered in his native country.
Sun Classique was enjoying an 18-pound weight break from her previous efforts in Dubai and that may have been the difference.
DeKock capped his night playing second-fiddle to Curlin as Asiatic Boy was closest to the champion at the winning post, 7.75 lengths in arrears.
Dubai shined again on racing's richest evening and preparations are surely underway for another festive Carnival and World Cup in 2009. All things being equal, I cannot wait to return.
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