Thursday’s fifth meeting of the 2018 Dubai World Cup Carnival at Meydan Racecourse is a quality one with three feature races on dirt, as well as the Meydan Classic Trial on the turf.
The official feature is the 1,900-metre Group 2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2, a race Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor has won 10 times, including in 2003 with subsequent Dubai World Cup winner Moon Ballad.
This year Bin Suroor relies on Thunder Snow, a Group 1 winner as a juvenile and last year as a three year old in Europe. He also landed both the Group 3 UAE 2000 Guineas and Group 2 UAE Derby in 2017. The four year old, who will be ridden by Christophe Soumillon, was second in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 over 1,600m on his seasonal reappearance and his trainer expects the return to 1,900m, the course and distance of his UAE Derby victory, to suit him.
“Thunder Snow has been doing well since his return in the first round and the step up in trip will suit,” Bin Suroor said. “He is in good form, has been working well and is ready to go. We have a good record in this race and have won it with some very good horses.”
Thunder Snow chased home the Salem bin Ghadayer-trained Heavy Metal in Round 1 four weeks ago. It was a sixth Meydan dirt victory for the horse, all bar one over that 1,600m. Mikael Barzalona gets the ride as Heavy Metal steps up to 1,900m for the first time locally on Thursday.
