In each of the past three seasons, Sole Power has raced competitively at Meydan Racecourse and, each time, for about 114 seconds in total.
The Irish globe-trotting sprinter lines up for the fourth time in what looks a fiercely competitive Meydan Sprint tonight as the highest-rated horse in the 16-runner field.
The eight-year-old bay was agonisingly edged out of the 1,000-metre race in 2012 by a short head and, for the past two seasons, he has been bested by Mike de Kock’s retired Shea Shea.
In all likelihood Saturday night’s Group 3 contest will be run in just under 57 seconds and, as it acts as a springboard to the Al Quoz Sprint over the same straight course and distance, time is ticking to catch sight of the diminutive sprinter.
Sole Power has run seven times at Meydan without success – he was 14th in the 2011 Al Quoz Sprint – and his time in Dubai acts more as a preparation for the European turf season, where last year he secured a Group 1 double in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Nunthorpe Stakes at York. It is a trend unlikely to be bucked tonight.
“We’ve left him plenty fresh,” Ed Lynam said at morning trackwork this week. “He’s run a lot of good races here, but he has never won.
“This race will hopefully bring him forward for the Al Quoz. The dream would be to win a third King’s Stand in a row. He spends three weeks out here and it sets him up for the summer.”
Sole Power’s Dubai mission takes on a poignant note this time because his jockey, Richard Hughes, announced his retirement on Wednesday.
The three-times British champion will not step down from the saddle until the end of the year, but it means that tonight’s card, and World Cup night on March 28, are the last two opportunities to see his rich array of talents in the UAE.
The 42-year-old Irishman feels physically that he could go on for longer, but he would like to take up training like his father, a National Hunt legend, who died in November.
If Sole Power is not trained to the minute, it is unlikely that his chief rival is either. Like a hydra, trainer Mike de Kock has replaced Shea Shea with Via Africa, who appears similar in ability to her former stablemate judging on her form in South Africa.
Via Africa was second twice in the Computerform Grade 1 Sprint at Turffontein, the race in which Shea Shea signed off his career in South Africa in 2012. De Kock has stated that there will be more improvement to come after what will be her first start since May.
It leaves the door ajar for one of the eight British runners to perhaps force their way into the winners’ enclosure, with Moviesta, part-owned by former Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp, possibly the best placed to score.
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