David Egan says Mishriff has developed into “the perfect racehorse” ahead of his defence of the Saudi Cup.
John and Thady Gosden’s money-spinner will take his career earnings higher than any other horse in history should he win the newly anointed Group 1 in Riyadh on Saturday. Mishriff's current career earnings stands at £11.1 million ($15 million).
Egan described Mishriff as "fit and healthy and he’s got all guns blazing" ahead of the weekend meet.
“He’s a credit to Team Gosden and everyone at Clarehaven, mentally he must be so strong," Egan said. "He’s a credit to himself as well, to do it on any surface and any trip is quite astonishing really.
“It was a feather in his cap having run well in the [Saudi] Derby out here the year before last and now he’s run well here twice, whereas some will be coming out here for the first time and running on this sort of surface for the first time.
“He’s had a similar prep in the UK, he travels well and takes it all in his stride so I hope things go nice and smoothly into the race.”
Egan said Mishriff has come on leaps and bounds since last winning in the Kingdom, making him the perfect ride for the Saudi Cup.
“He’s a lot more professional in his races now. As a three-year-old he would jump slow and took an age to get going," Egan said. "He was just immature, but racing and developing with age has helped turn him into the perfect racehorse.
“Last year everyone had their eyes on Knicks Go and Charlatan, it’s more of an open race this year there’s half a dozen who could win.
“Mishriff has proved he’s the horse to beat with track experience and leads the way, I suppose.”
The specs
Price, base: Dh228,000 / Dh232,000 (est)
Engine: 5.7-litre Hemi V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 552Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.5L / 100km
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
