Charlie Appleby is set to unleash stable stars Safety Check and Tryster at Meydan on consecutive weeks following the Dubai World Cup Carnival Week 8 declarations on Tuesday.
Safety Check defends his Zabeel Mile crown on Thursday and will be partnered by William Buick before the jockey flies to Sydney to ride for Godolphin at the Group 1 meeting on Saturday.
Read more from Geoffrey Riddle:
[ California Chrome comes to Dubai having ‘never carried so much’ weight, according to trainer ]
[ Tryster stays on turf while Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby is running out of options ]
The five-year-old chestnut will face eight rivals in the US$250,000 (Dh918,237) contest in which he posted the record time 12 months ago of 1 min, 35.53 secs.
Safety Check will break from Gate 4 outside Mike De Kock’s Zahee and South African raider Harry’s Son, whom he beat in the Al Fahidi Fort last month.
Appleby is confident of a big run.
“We said before the Al Fahidi Fort that we felt Safety Check was a better horse compared to last year and he has done well since winning that race,” he said.
“He is coming up against a few horses who didn’t run in the Al Fahidi Fort, but Safety Check is clear on ratings and heads into Thursday’s contest in good order.”
Tryster was a scintillating winner of the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes last week and Appleby hopes to step up the former synthetics king to Group 1 company next Saturday in the Jebel Hatta.
The Jebel Hatta is a traditional prep race for the Dubai Turf on World Cup night, and the trainer expects Tryster to progress to the richest night in racing on March 26.
“We’ll see how he is nearer the time, but we’ll look at the Jebel Hatta en route to hopefully having a crack at the Dubai Turf,” Appleby said.
“I was delighted with him and he seems to have come out of the race well.”
Godolphin will have five runners in total on Thursday and will be represented by the highly regarded Marking in the Al Naboodah National Plant Trophy, a 1,200-metre dirt handicap.
Marking buckled on leaving the stalls on his Dubai debut in the Al Shindagha Sprint two weeks ago and threw James Doyle. He will be ridden on Thursday by Buick.
Appleby saddles Baccarat in the concluding turf sprint, while Saeed bin Suroor sends out Think Ahead in the 10-furlong turf race.
California Chrome has been declared for the 2,000 metre dirt handicap, and Bin Suroor has made a shrewd jockey booking by snapping up English rider Edward Greatrex.
Greatrex will have his first ride at Meydan aboard Godolphin’s Good Contact, who will receive 9.5kgs from the American challenger.
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
