The race will take place over 1,400 meters (approximately 7 furlongs) on the grass field December 6 on the undercard of the 33rd UAE President Cup for Arabian Purebreds under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Post time is 7:00 PM local time, or 10:00 AM ET.
“You will see the thoroughbred offering grow in the coming years and we will do it in a complementary way with the purebred Arabian offering,” ADTC racecourse director Dayle Brown said on the ADTC website. December 1 episode of the BloodHorse Monday podcast. “We have both types of racing for tradition, for people who love their purebred Arabian racing, but also to develop thoroughbred racing, which has international appeal.”
READ: UAE President Cup shows Abu Dhabi’s global growth
The thoroughbred edition of the President Cup has recently seen investment from the ADTC. The race was contested in February 2024 as an AED 380,000 race, but was rescheduled to December and recontested in 2024 under the current purse of AED 1 million. The winner of December 2024, Make me king and the winner of 2023, Western writer are participating in the race again this year.
Both Western Writer and Make Me King won in a field of 11, with the February 2024 edition featuring 14. There will be a full starting field of 16 on Saturday, with three reserves still hoping to get in from December 5.
Brown attributed this increase in interest and quality of runners to the addition of the Abu Dhabi Gold Cup to the ADTC schedule, a $1 million, 1-mile race that debuts on February 7. Scheduled three weeks before Meydan’s ‘Super Saturday’ card, which is itself a prelude to the Dubai World Cup carnival, Brown believes the strengthening of the schedule will help keep top horses in the UAE throughout the winter racing season.
“We really want to be a destination for international racing, but also for growing local racing,” Brown said. “To be part of the carnivals that exist, to be part of the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup, to play a real role in that and grow the region exponentially.”
The circuit also wants to further develop international interest. The ADTC collaborates with Churchill Downs to offer an automatic invitation to the 2027 Abu Dhabi Gold Cup to the winner of the 2026 Turf Classic Stakes (G1T), held on Kentucky Derby Day, May 2.
In addition to the size of the field, the President Cup also houses talent. In fact, the field attracted so much quality that a high-profile international trainer, Charlie Appleby, was left on the reserve list with his home-bred Godolphin. Indian sourcesas well as the Argentinian winner of Group 1 Justin.
from Shadwell Danja is the best-known name in the field thanks to his top-level victory on the 2023 Dubai World Cup night in the Al Quoz Sprint (G1T) over 1,200 meters (approximately 6 furlongs). However, the now 8 year old Invincible spirit gelding has not yet regained that form and is racing outside Meydan for the first time since 2021.
Danyah is one of four runners trained by one of the UAE’s top trainers, Musabbeh Al Mheiri. The others don’t have the same past references as Danyah, but come in in better recent form. by Naser Askar Echo point is coming off a handicap victory over 1,400 meters on dirt tracks at Meydan on November 21, while Muhammet Ali’s Mountbatten won a handicap on November 14 over the same course and distance that he faces several returning rivals on Saturday.
The final of Al Mheiri’s four runners is one that may be familiar to an American audience: Kubrick . Trained by Chad Brown for the 2024 season for owner Peter Brant, son of Dubai from the Mr. Greeley mare Rosa Bonheur won an allowance race on Tampa Bay Downs and was the last of six inside Keeneland‘s Mile Bet (G1T).
Kubrick in his stable at the Chad Brown barn in Keeneland in 2024
The horse was offered at the 2024 Keeneland November Horses of Racing Age Sale and was purchased by Chad Schumer/KGS for $180,000 from the ELiTE consignment. Now owned by Mohamed Eldubeba, Kubrick has made one start in the UAE for his new connections, finishing sixth in Meydan’s Res Al Khor (G3) on March 7 in a race with several rivals he faced on Saturday, including the winner Marban .
Kubrick will be ridden by Southern California-based Italian jockey Antonio Fresu, running in the UAE this month ahead of the Santa Anita Park Meeting starting on December 26.
American blood is represented in several pedigrees in the large field, but perhaps the most unique is the presence of the Kentucky-bred mare. Yodelling mother of both Echo Point and Western Writer. The Gold Medal mare was a two-time winner for Godolphin racing in Europe and competing in the 2015 UAE One Thousand Guineas.
Watson believes Abu Dhabi fills a needed spot in the schedule
Eight-time UAE champion trainer Doug Watson will also be part of the field with Mohammed Khalifa Al Basti’s See Hector . The Counterattack gelding makes his first start for Watson after coming from Jamie Osborne’s stable.
The horse has some experience in the UAE and ran three times at Meydan early this year, including a third in the 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles) Dubai City of Gold (G2T).
Doug Watson (right) collects a trophy at Meydan Racecourse
Saturday’s seven-furlong task may prove too short for the runner, but his participation is testament to the benefits an improved thoroughbred track in Abu Dhabi can bring.
“There’s nothing here (at Meydan) that really suits him until later at Carnival,” Watson said. “It gives us a race and maybe he’ll get a check there; it’s a pretty good check.”
Watson said traditionally, grass racing options don’t normally appear on the Meydan calendar until January, although this year they do have a few in December.
Abu Dhabi, which has the only other artificial turf track in the UAE, recently expanded its thoroughbred offering to two races per card for most of the year. According to Watson, that makes a huge difference when it comes to releasing a summer break in November or December, especially for lower-level horses, as most of Meydan’s turf races are designed to prepare runners for World Cup night.
“It helps a lot of horses that we can’t put somewhere on the dirt or Meydan on the turf,” Watson said. “(The ADTC) is helping. It’s a nice grass track up there, a big straight and big tight turns.”
It also gives a horse like See Hector the opportunity to go for a big purse on Saturday at a lower fair level. Watson reports that the horse has trained very well ahead of his stable debut.
“He’s a nice horse, I like him,” Watson said. “(The ADTC) has really picked up the program in recent years in terms of the number of Thoroughbred races. That’s the biggest thing for here, and I think they’ll add more higher class races throughout the season as the years go by.”
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