• Dubai World Cup Carnvial, Thursday-Saturday, Meydan Racecourse
• Schedule and racecards: emiratesracing.com
This time last year, few would have thought that Doug Watson would go on to become champion Dubai World Cup Carnival trainer.
He had five winners to Saeed bin Suroor’s 19 in 2014, but the American managed to pip the formerly perennial leading trainer by one.
Watson has cut through the domestic season with gusto, too, and kicks off the defence of his Carnival crown with a robust challenge on Thursday night at Meydan Racecourse.
Watson signed off 2016 with a four-timer at Meydan and has collected 23 winners this domestic season already — three more than Satish Seemar achieved all of last season when fifth in the standings. Al Asayl’s Eric Lemartinel can boast more prize money thanks to RB Burn’s sensational upset in the €1.2 million (Dh4.6m) Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown in November, but Watson is 10 winners clear of the Frenchman and has saddled over double the number of runners-up, too.
In a show of strength Watson will tack up 10 runners on Thursday — the opening night of a Carnival that comprises 65 races split between 61 thoroughbred contests and four for Purebred Arabians, and which culminates on World Cup night on March 25.
That is more firepower than Bin Suroor and fellow Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby can muster between them and more than any other trainer with runners on Thursday.
Meydan’s shifting sands have long promised something different to Godolphin’s dominance but there is the suspicion that one empire might be simply replaced by another.
On the eve of what promises to be one of the best Carnivals in recent memory, Watson is proud of last season’s achievement, but he is still hungry for more.
“It makes it much easier getting up early in the morning to know you actually might have a chance,” Watson said. “It doesn’t feel any different and it is not the first thing I think about every day, but it is great to have done it.
“We’re fortunate we have good owners who have given us good horses and I have a great team here. We just try to do the best we can each time.”
Watson’s equine team were whittled down to as low as 60 during the seasons when Meydan raced on Tapeta up to the 2014/15 season.
He now has 115 horses without the injured Carnival stalwarts One Man Band and Faulkner, who miss the season. Last year Watson’s Carnival earnings exceeded the US$2.5m (nearly Dh9.2m) barrier and there is a fair chance he might top that this campaign.
The minimum purse for a Carnival race now stands at $1,000,000, with prize-money across the 10 Carnival fixtures — including Super Saturday on March 4 — a staggering $10,925,000, which is up by almost $500,000 on 12 months ago.
The increase in purse sizes has attracted a bumper entry. Horses from 18 countries are set to take their chance over the next few months and on Thursday night alone there are international challengers from France, India, Argentina, South Africa, Macau, Britain, Singapore and Ireland across the seven-race card.
The feature race is the Group 2 Al Maktoum Challenge in which Watson’s Polar River goes up against last year’s winner Le Bernardin and Appleby’s much-hyped Emotionless.
Polar River lit up the Carnival last season but her flame barely burnt on seasonal debut when fourth in a Conditions race over 1,600 metres in November.
Watson also runs Cool Cowboy, but the filly is the stable No 1 under Pat Dobbs.
“She will come on for that run a lot,” Watson said. “She was running on the back of a seven month layoff and was giving weight to older horses. I chose that race because it was seven weeks out and she likes spaces between her races.
“We’ll see if she is up to competing with the big boys now.”
The same could be said for her trainer.
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