Caspar Fownes intends to run Hong Kong Cup challenger Gun Pit for the duration of the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
Gun Pit faces a massive task at Sha Tin on Sunday, when he takes on the dual Japanese raiders Maurice and A Shin Hikari in the feature race of the four Longines International races.
Gun Pit is one of 14 horses in the 2,000-metre contest, which also includes Helene Super Star who won the 2013 UAE Derby when called Lines Of Battle.
Gun Pit, who is currently rated at 115, finished last in the World Cup, having run with promise to finish second to Special Fighter in the third round of the Al Maktoum Challenge in March.
He has not won for a year, but Fownes believes the six-year-old son of Dubawi can run with credit on Sunday.
“Gun Pit is very well, he’s had a good prep leading into the Cup,” he said. “Obviously, it’s going to be the biggest race he’s tackled and it’s going to be tough for him. But his last few runs on grass have had merit so I’ll just be looking at hopefully picking up a little cheque for the owner and just running a nice race, especially on that surface. And then we’ll look forward to taking him to Dubai and campaigning there for a couple of months.”
Gun Pit’s best performances have all come on dirt but jockey Karis Teetan believes he can be at least competitive on turf.
“If they go a good pace, where he’s comfortable, I think he can run well,” he said. “Some people see him as just a dirt specialist but he’s won on the grass and he’s run some good races on grass. I’m not saying he’ll win but I’d like to see him running strongly to the line — he has the ability to fly home and run a very good race.”
Races at Meydan that would suit Gun Pit include the $US 135,000 handicap on the opening night of the Carnival on January 5, the second round of the Al Maktoum Challenge over 1,900 metres on February 2, and the Listed Curlin Handicap over 2,000 metres.
Should he run well on turf on Saturday there are several valuable handicaps at Meydan over 2000 metres on grass that he could run in, including on January 12 and February 2, as well as the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes on February 16.
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