All eyes on Life Is Good, Suroor chases historic 10th victory

There’s no doubt that Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Pegasus World Cup winner Life Is Good is the standout, but he’s just one of a galaxy of stars lining up in the 26th running of the Dubai World Cup (sponsored by Emirates Airline).

Six Group or Grade 1 winners line up in the $12million contest, representing six different countries. With a five from six- career record, Life Is Good possesses a fearsome profile, but is yet to tackle this 2000metre distance, something trainer Todd Pletcher has been working on.

“I’m very happy with him, his weight looks good, I think he handled the ship in perfectly,” said the Kentucky Derby-winning trainer.

“The Pegasus was his first time at a mile and an eighth and he handled that well, so we’ve focused on just some good, stamina-building breezes and strong gallop outs. He does everything so willingly; he likes doing it, enjoys his job, and all his work has been super good.”

Drawn in one, Life Is Good and jockey Irad Ortiz will likely make the others try to chase him down

After watching Dubai World Cup favourite Life Is Good have his final gallop around the track, Elliott Walden could only grin and shake his head.

Walden, the CEO and racing manager of co-owner WinStar Farm, has been around horses all of his life and worked with several top horses including Triple Crown winner Justify and Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed.

Yet he still gets a kick out of watching the four-year-old entire son of Into Mischief go around the track.

“He just never has an off day,” he said. “I’ve never seen a horse gallop as smoothly as he does everyday.”

One who has no concerns about the distance is Hot Rod Charlie, who warmed up for this assignment with a comfortable win over 1900metres in G2 Maktoum Challenge Round 2 last month.

Doug O’Neill elected to send Dubai World Cup entrant Hot Rod Charlie, and UAE Derby hopeful Get Back Goldie to the training track.

The pair jogged once around the oval with an outrider pony in between. Tony Romaro was aboard Hot Rod Charlie while jockey Flavien Prat was aboard Goldie.

“Charlie can be a handful in the morning,” O’Neill commented. “We didn’t want him to be too tough for Prat. We are very happy how everything has gone since coming out here. He looks great and we are ready for tomorrow.”   

The US challenge in the race is further bolstered by Bob Baffert’s Country Grammer, an excellent second, returning from a break, in the Saudi Cup last time, and Steve Asmussen’s Country Bourbon, who was third in Riyadh.

Just behind those two, in fifth, was Aero Trem, who will represent Uruguay-based Brazilian trainer Antonio Cintra.  The winner of South America’s biggest race, the G1 Gran Premio Latinoamericano, in October, his trainer is confident that he has him spot on for Saturday.

“He’s ready,” he said. “His run in Saudi was amazing, to finish fifth, with a strong finish – it felt like we won! We just breezed him once since then and we hope he will run another big race.”

Adding further international flair to the line-up are last year’s second and third, Chuwa Wizard, from Japan for trainer Ryuji Okubo, and Magny Cours, trained in France by Andre Fabre.

Three represent home nation the UAE, including Real World, who will aim to win trainer Saeed Bin Suroor a remarkable tenth World Cup, Hypothetical, for trainer Salem Bin Ghadayer, and Remorse, for Bhupat Seemar.

Real World and Magny Cours aim to provide a fourth straight Godolphin victory in the G1 Dubai World Cup.

Both homebreds enjoyed notable turf success in Europe last season, with Real World racking up a remarkable sequence of four wins for Suroor that culminated with G2 glory in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein on Longchamp’s Arc weekend.

Real World kicked off 2022 in similar style with a scintillating display in the G2 Zabeel Mile before a sluggish start compromised his chances in the G1 Saudi Cup at Riyadh.

Magny Cours also finished down the field in the Saudi Cup and the Fabre-trained seven-year-old makes a second Dubai World Cup appearance following a fine third behind Mystic Guide and Chuwa Wizard 12 months ago.

Suroor, seeking a 10th Dubai World Cup, said: “We need to forget what happened to Real World in the Saudi Cup because he missed the break. I could see from the start that his race was over. He came out of the race really well and his latest piece of work put him spot on for this.”