Dubai // It is a characteristic of most trainers with a horse running on Dubai World Cup night to be bristling with confidence on arrival, but Shivananda Parbhoo was markedly bullish about Trinniberg's chances in Saturday's Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan Racecourse on Sunday.
Trinniberg had his first look at the Tapeta surface at the Dubai racecourse Sunday, following a quick spin around the training track on Saturday.
The task facing the four-year-old American raider became significantly easier later in the day when Godolphin stables revealed they had withdrawn Emcee, the Group 1-winning sprinter formerly trained in the US by Kiaran McLaughlin. The move leaves the trainer Mahmoud Al Zarooni with only the well-regarded Mental in the race.
Trinniberg is slated for work this morning and will undergo a stalls test later in the week.
The sprinter showed an extraordinary ability to vie for the lead and have enough in reserve to get home in style when winning the Breeders' Cup Sprint on the Santa Anita dirt in November.
By moving lightly over the Tapeta surface in morning exercise, Trinniberg indicated that the idiosyncratic surface is unlikely to prove a bar to success in the six-furlong event. As such, Parbhoo could barely contain himself at the thought of his charge, purchased at auction for just $US21,000 (Dh77,100), lining up in the $2 million race.
"I want to see who is going to run with him and try to stay with him the whole way," Parbhoo said, laying down the gauntlet to his 12 rivals. He's going to lead and whoever wants to go come, can come."
Trinniberg's performance at Santa Anita was doubly impressive considering he was one of only a handful of three-year-old runners who took on their elders and won in open Group 1 races worldwide last year.
Dullahan, who runs in the Dubai World Cup for the trainer Dale Romans, beat Game On Dude in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, California, in August while in Europe only the German pair of Pastorius and Novellist scored for the Classic crop against their elders.
Trinniberg has not run since blazing a trail in California. In the meantime, he has filled out his giant frame.
Parbhoo has a small operation based at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, and regularly enlists the help of Bisnath, his septuagenarian father, to ensure the smooth running of the 17-horse stables.
The pair's workload is such that Trinniberg had to be packed off after the Breeders' Cup to Crupi's New Castle Farm, a training facility in Ocala, Florida, that keeps thoroughbreds.
When he was handed back to Parbhoo in mid-January, it was almost as if the teenager had become a man.
"He had put on 150 pounds," Parbhoo said. "He was so big, I could barely believe it was him. He's a strong, strapping horse now and is better than he was at the Breeders' Cup. Take nothing away from Giant Ryan, who was fifth for us last year in this race, but Trinniberg is the strongest and biggest horse I've had."
Private Zone, Trinniberg's fellow American raider in the Golden Shaheen, also logged some morning track work yesterday.
The main US contingent touched down on Wednesday night.
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