Lord North lands Dubai Turf glory; Fresu survives fall after Zenden wins Golden Shaheen

The stands might not have been filled as usual at Meydan, but that didn’t stop Frankie Dettori from making his traditional flying dismount after the John Gosden-trained Lord North (IRE) lifted the US $4m Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World in great style.

As expected, First Contact had gone to the lead in this 1800m race, while Dettori had positioned his son of Dubawi one off the rail towards the back of the field.

Coming out of the final bend, he kicked on and Lord North responded immediately, absolutely flying home all the way to the line to beat Japanese raider Vin De Garde, who produced a very good performance himself, by three lengths, while the Marco Botti-trained Felix finished an excellent third.

It was an impressive reappearance by the 2020 Prince of Wales’s Stakes winner at Royal Ascot and Thady Gosden, who has just entered a training partnership with his father John, said: “We were always hoping he would run well as he was in brilliant form out here. But he definitely put that race to bed very well from pretty far back. We will take him home now and then maybe give him a break and target the race he won last year at Ascot.”

Dettori, who was recording his second victory in the race that he won last in 1997 with Tamayaz, was equally impressed with the performance of the 5-year-old, who won the race in 01:46:46.

He said: “It was a nice pace. I had plenty of horse and I know he stays really well. So I kicked early and he flew. I didn’t do much else after that, he did the rest.”

Owned by Sheikh Zayed Bin Mohammed Racing, the 5-year-old made his debut in handicaps before graduating all the way up to Group 1 level and his jockey added: “He was a handful in the early days, so he got gelded and he is much more focussed now. He is a horse for all the good races this year. I’m sure the Gosdens will have a plan.”

Mickael Barzalona, jockey, Vin De Garde said: “I had no orders at all, he (trainer Hideaki Fujiwara) just asked me to ride my horse where he was happy and suitable. Actually I was very relaxed where I was. I just had to find a way to go, as the horse in front of me wasn’t very good. But I knew the danger would come from behind. My horse ran a very good race. I just got beaten by a horse that was better on the day, he was a Group 1 winner in Europe. This was my third year in a row I was riding the Japanese horse here, but I was beaten again.”

Meanwhile, American raider Zenden (USA) ran out a brilliant victor of the $1.5m Dubai Golden Shaheen but there was a sad postscript when the winner suffered a fatal injury after the finishing post.

Winning Rider Antonio Fresu was unshipped from the horse although he was able to walk away after the fall.

A first Dubai winner for trainer Carlos David, the Fed Biz entire came to the race on the back of a successful prep run at Tampa in Florida. He looked to have an unfavourable draw in 14 of 14 but Fresu made a swift move early in the race to take a rail position and they were soon leading the field.

Zenden powered clear of his competition as he turned into the home straight, eventually winning by three and a quarter lengths.

Red Le Zele, trained by Japanese handler Takayuki Yasuda, finished second. The Doug Watson-trained Canvassed was two and three-quarter lengths further back in third. The winning time was 01:09:01.