Mike De Kock and Christophe Soumillon said that Vercingetorix was going to win the Dubai Duty Free at the top of the stretch at Meydan Racecourse last month before he was overwhelmed by the power-packed Just A Way.
Vercingetorix does not face a runner of a similar calibre in Sunday afternoon’s Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Shat Tin that offers the opportunity for him to regain his winning thread when he spearheads De Kock’s twin-pronged assault on the HK$14 million (Dh6.6m) contest.
It is somewhat of a recovery mission for Vercingetorix after his eclipse by the Japanese raider ended a sequence of five successive wins.
There was clearly enough promise in his World Cup night run for the trainer to be justified in his hope of a third success in the 2,000-metre contest.
Vercingetorix will be ridden by Anthony Delpech, who knows his mount intimately thanks to two wins together in South Africa last year, and the man who partnered 2007 QE II Cup winner Vengeance Of Rain to success said their draw in Gate 3 is ideal.
“There doesn’t look to be too much speed, but my horse is versatile and has the turn of foot to put himself into the race no matter what the tempo,” he said at the barrier draw this week.
Sanshaawes, Vercingetorix’s stablemate, will take his chance in the turf event under Olivier Doleuze and will be saddled up to redeem his reputation after he reared in the stalls before finishing seventh in the Dubai World Cup.
Doleuze has never ridden for De Kock and was positive after he had partnered his mount for the first time in trackwork at Sha Tin.
“There’s no pressure on me or the horse,” he said.
“Nobody’s watching us. He will enjoy the little cut in the track and the distance is no problem so he might surprise a few people.”
De Kock will not be present, but he will be watching the race safe in the knowledge that Vercingetorix is cut from the same cloth as his two previous winners.
“If one looks at official ratings, he’s probably got to be in a similar league as Irridescence and Archipenko,” he told the Hong Kong Jockey Club from South Africa. “He is on the up, it’s hard to compare generations but I’d put him in that league.”
The home defence is led by Military Attack, John Moore’s runner, who ran with credit in the Dubai World Cup.
Moore also runs the much-vaunted Designs On Rome, who has won his past two races; Dominant, who was fifth in the Dubai Sheema Classic; and Same World, a six year old who is unlikely to be involved at the business end of the race.
In the past 14 years, 10 runners from Hong Kong have come to Dubai to contest races on World Cup night ahead of a run in the QEII Cup.
Only three secured a placing on their return, and all of those ran in the Dubai Sheema Classic over 2,410 metres on turf.
Military Attack had a solid run in the world’s most valuable race at Meydan and would need to buck that trend, and that must have De Kock smiling.
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Treve is go for Prix Ganay at Longchamp
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Just A Way staked a claim to be the best turf horse in the world at Meydan Racecourse on World Cup night last month but the unbeaten Treve will have something to say about that when the wraps are taken off the French filly on Sunday in Paris.
Last year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine faces seven rivals in the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp this afternoon, among them Corine Barande Barbe’s evergreen and ever ready Cirrus Des Aigles, who ran his heart out to finish second to Gentildonna in the Dubai Sheema Classic 29 days ago. Treve’s campaign has been mapped out by her trainer Criquette Head-Maarek and today’s extended 2,000-metre contest is the first of four races that will take in the Price Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, before an Arc trial and a defence of her tiara in October.
Treve’s proposed career will be a fleeting – and possibly brilliant – nine races.
That is a perfect contrast to Cirrus Des Aigles, who is fit from Dubai and battle-hardened after 55 races.
“It’s a big challenge, but Treve is running for the first time this year and, anyway, Cirrus has run against Goldikova, Sarafina, Frankel and Farhh and he’s still here,” Barande Barbe said, in reference to the champions her eight-year-old gelding has taken on down the years.
According to the Longines World Rankings, Just A Way’s victory in the Dubai Duty Free established the Japanese raider as the best horse in the world with a rating of 130, the same position Treve held last season alongside Australian sprinter Black Caviar.
A year older, we wait to see whether the jewel in Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad’s racing empire has improved at the age of four and whether she can regain the mantle as the world’s best.
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