UAE: Leading US dirt performer Hot Rod Charlie will go on trial for the $12 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan on Friday [Feb 5] when he makes his UAE debut in the second round of the Al Maktoum Challenge.
With regular jockey Flavien Prat staying in the US, Godolphin rider William Buick – who rode two winners for US trainer Doug O’Neill at the 2020 Dubai Carnival – has the leg-up in the G2 contest over 1m1½f. Frankie Dettori, back in action after missing last week’s card owing to COVID-19, partners Hot Rod Charlie’s stablemate Go On in the $350,000 event.
O’Neill, who has five runners on a stakes-laden card at Meydan, has a team of horses stationed in Dubai for the carnival ahead of the main event on March 26, for which Hot Rod Charlie is second favourite behind new world #1 Life Is Good.
On his most recent outing, the hugely popular colt was beaten a nose in the G2 San Antonio Stakes on his home track of Santa Anita on December 26.
On official ratings the four-year-old is at least a stone superior to his 11 rivals at Meydan following a three-year-old campaign in which he was placed in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes before winning the G1 Pennsylvania Derby.
He was also disqualified from first place in the Haskell Stakes in July for causing interference and finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, exploits which earned him the Vox Populi Award for 2021, voted for by US racing fans.
Among his owners are the ‘Boat Racing’ team comprising five former members of the Brown University football team, of whom Patrick O’Neill, nephew of the trainer, will be at Meydan with fellow co-owner Bill Strauss.
“We sat down after the Breeders’ Cup meeting in November and made a plan for the horse”, said Strauss, speaking to the Dubai Racing Club. “We decided to target Dubai and then the best way of getting to the Dubai World Cup, which was to bring him here and give him a race over the track.”
Among Hot Rod Charlie’s opponents are Everfast, runner-up in the 2019 Preakness, who won on his local debut for Doug Watson in December. “We weren’t sure where to go with him”, said Watson.
“We were thinking about this race or the Firebreak, but then [owner] Frankie O’Connor came into town and that helped make up our minds. He was second in the Preakness over this trip, so I don’t think it will be a problem.”
The Maktoum Challenge is one of three Group races on the Meydan card alongside the G2 Balanchine and the G3 Firebreak.
• Visit the Dubai Racing Club website
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