Gentildonna’s prep run for the Dubai Sheema Classic did not go according to plan as the star Japanese mare finished sixth in the Grade 2 Kyoto Kinen yesterday.
The five-year-old dual Japan Cup winner was without regular jockeys Yasunari Iwata and Ryan Moore and under Yuichi Fukunaga. She was fractious in her stall before the starting gates opened.
The combination of Norihiro Yokoyama on board Desperado ran out winners ahead of Tosen Ra, who won the Grade 1 Mile Championship at Kyoto in November, in second for jockey Yutake Take, while Uncoiled was third.
“She couldn’t run her race today because before the starting gates opened, she dived under the barrier,” Fukunaga told the Racing Post.
“I then had to get her to relax, but couldn’t feel her power when we rounded the home turn. She fought well at the finish, though.”
Gentildonna was second to the ill-fated St Nicholas Abbey in the Sheema Classic last season after a layoff of four months following her first Japan Cup win.
She was among an entry of 11 from Japan, and 308 in total, for this season’s US$5 million (Dh18.3m) turf race at Meydan Racecourse on March 29.
Mucho Macho Man headed a stellar entry for the Dubai World Cup, but will not come to the UAE and will instead be trained for a clash with former World Cup runner Game On Dude in the Santa Anita Handicap on March 8.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic winner will pass up a chance for a shot at $10m and will instead run for $750,000 at a track where he won the Grade 1 Awesome Again Stakes last season.
“The people in Dubai have been very kind and professional,” Finn Green, the racing manager for owners Dean and Patti Reeves, told the New York Daily News.
“We examined our options over a long period of time, and feel it’s the best thing for the horse to stay here.”
sports@thenational.ae