Trainer John Moore will leave Designs On Rome a little on the heavy side for his trip to Dubai as the Hong Kong contingent gear up to travel to Meydan Racecourse later this week.
Moore breezed Hong Kong’s horse of the year on turf on Monday at Sha Tin racecourse, and yesterday the five-year-old gelding worked on the all-weather surface over 1,200 metres in 1min, 19.1secs under jockey Joao Moreira.
Designs On Rome has long been a contender for the Dubai Sheema Classic and warmed up for his bid in the US$6 million (Dh22m) contest with his third victory at the highest level when he won the Citibank Hong Kong Cup this month.
“He’s right on song for the Dubai assault,” Moore said. “His work was impressive and Moreira commented that he doesn’t need much more.
“We would like to go over to Dubai a little on the bigger side, because we know they lose weight on these excursions. For that reason I’ve put a little bit of body weight on to him and hopefully that will counteract that.
“Designs On Rome’s a real contender and we are going in with really high hopes. If he travels well and everything goes to plan he has got to be in there with a nice chance of winning.”
Designs On Rome spearheads a team of seven from the Special Administrative Region, all of whom will fly out on Saturday.
Sprinters Lucky Nine and Peniaphobia underwent a barrier trial on the all-weather yesterday. Both sprinters won their trials, with Lucky Nine clocking 1:10 over 1,200m in preparation for the Dubai Golden Shaheen. Peniaphobia stopped the timer at 1:01.4 over 1,050. ahead of Al Quoz Sprint.
Joining Peniaphobia in the Quoz Sprint will be Amber Sky, who lowered the Meydan track record 12 months ago when winning the 1,000m dash.
Amber Sky worked at Sha Tin on the turf on Monday and covered 800m in 50.9, while fellow Al Quoz aspirant Bundle Of Joy ran the same distance in 48.2.
Last year’s Dubai Golden Shaheen runner-up Rich Tapestry worked over 1,200m on Saturday at 1:16, while Super Jockey, another Golden Shaheen hopeful, timed 56.9 on the all-weather on Monday.
Over in the United States, the biggest US team sent to Meydan embarked on their journey to Dubai headed by California Chrome, the US Horse of the Year.
Expected on the plane are up to 14 horses, which is a sharp rise from the three last year when for the first time in 19 runnings of the World Cup there was no American representation at all.
California Chrome will be joined in the world’s most valuable race by Lea, who had his last workout in America on Monday at Payson Park.
Lea covered half a mile in 49 seconds.
Lea, trained by Bill Mott, narrowly failed to defend his Donn Handicap crown at Gulfstream Park last month when downed by Constitution.
Cigar in 1996, Captain Steve in 2001, Roses In May in 2005 and Invasor in 2007 all used the Donn Handicap as a stepping stone to World Cup glory.
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