Mike de Kock is hopeful that dirt form at Meydan can translate across the Atlantic when Mubtaahij takes his chance in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 2. The South African trainer, however, is going to have to do it the hard way.
The UAE Derby winner touched down in America last week and has been working at Arlington Park under assistant trainer Trevor Brown and regular work rider Lisa Moncrieff ahead of the “Run For The Roses”, the most important race in North America.
Mubtaahij, owned by Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa, faced a 24-hour journey from De Kock’s Blue Stables base in Dubai and had to endure bitterly cold weather when he had a breeze over 800 metres on the polytrack in Chicago on Tuesday.
His feed has been changed to meet US regulations and he will bid to become the first horse since Grindstone in 1996 to win the Kentucky Derby without Lasix, the anti-bleeding drug used in American racing but banned in Dubai.
“No trainer or athlete would like to change their regular diet going into any event,” De Kock said by teleconference from South Africa. “It is not what he is used to regularly. How much bearing that will have on his performance, quite frankly, I am not that sure. For a trainer’s psyche is it not ideal.”
Mubtaahij will be the first horse to run in the Kentucky Derby without Lasix since Don’t Get Mad a decade ago.
“Lasix is there to assist known bleeders,” De Kock said. “This horse has never had a suspicion of bleeding. I am not sure what he will do, having been given Lasix. He has never had it in training.
“Those horses had bled before in training and had been administered Lasix in training. It is purely the bleeding factor. I am not prepared to gamble on his form being altered.”
On World Cup night Mubtaahij defeated a trio of Japanese raiders, two from Saudi Arabia, a horse from England, one from America in addition to a Uruguayan Triple Crown winner in Godolphin’s Sir Fever. Along with Tamarkuz, who won the Godolphin Mile, and Prince Bishop, who downed the much-heralded California Chrome in the World Cup, it showed that horses conditioned on the Meydan dirt surface could vie with the best in the world.
No UAE Derby runner has finished in the top three places in the Kentucky Derby from the 10 who have made the trip, but De Kock believes Mubtaahij’s improving form and will to win should stand him in good stead.
“I can take a lot from what we saw in Dubai,” he said. “There was a fair amount of kickback in Dubai and if he can deal with that he can probably deal with anything.”
De Kock has had more than 100 Group or Grade 1 winners during his career, but only one win on dirt in North America. That came courtesy of the remarkable Horse Chestnut, perhaps South Africa’s greatest horse, who won what is now the Skip Away Stakes at Gulfstream Park in 2000. That success would pale into comparison should Mubtaahij secure a landmark win next week in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Since a young man I have looked at the Kentucky Derby in awe,” he said. “There are great race meetings around the world and everybody likes to think theirs is the greatest.
“If it isn’t the greatest, show me which one is. To be part of that is something special. It is mind-boggling. It will settle in when I get there and see the real spirit around it all. I don’t think I’ll be disappointed. It has been an ambition and dream and I am very honoured and privileged to realise that.”
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