Six overseas horses to note on the Dubai World Cup card

CALIFORNIA SPANGLE (Timeform rating: 125)

California Spangle bids to become Hong Kong’s third winner of the Al Quoz Sprint, though it’s mainly as a miler rather than as a sprinter that he’s made his name as a high-class performer at Sha Tin. He’s even stretched out to a mile and a quarter in the past when getting touched off in the Hong Kong Derby, but he has evidently inherited plenty of speed from his sire Starspangledbanner who contested this race himself for Aidan O’Brien.

California Spangle made best use of his pace to inflict a rare defeat on Hong Kong superstar Golden Sixty in the Hong Kong Mile at the end of 2022, and while he didn’t give his running in the latest renewal of that contest, he bounced back to form when gaining his latest Group 1 victory just three weeks ago. That came in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup over seven furlongs when having another of Hong Kong’s champions behind him, their top sprinter Lucky Sweynesse who’d won the race the year before. With his rivals no world-beaters, California Spangle is the one to beat if anywhere close to his Hong Kong form over longer trips.

VOYAGE BUBBLE (127)

Hong Kong have never won the Dubai Turf but Voyage Bubble has the high-class form to be a threat to the leading contenders from Europe and Japan, while his trainer Ricky Yiu, a former champion trainer in Hong Kong, has tasted success on this card before in the Al Quoz Sprint with Amber Sky. Voyage Bubble worked his way through the ranks in Hong Kong before pulling off a shock win in last year’s Hong Kong Derby when coming from the outside stall and from well back in the field to win at odds of 45/1.

Voyage Bubble has done better still this winter, putting himself up with the very best performers at Sha Tin. He fared best of the rest when a length and a half behind Golden Sixty in the Hong Kong Mile in December and came out on top when several of the beaten runners in that race met again in the Stewards Cup in January; California Spangle, and Straight Arron who joins him in this field, were among those behind him. On his latest start, Voyage Bubble went down by just a neck to dual Hong Kong Cup winner Romantic Warrior in the Hong Kong Gold Cup over a mile and a quarter.

LIBERTY ISLAND (127)

Last year’s Dubai Sheema Classic winner Equinox might have retired to stud but his name still looms large in Japanese form-lines and four-year-old filly Liberty Island, like the other Japanese runners in this field, came up against the world’s best horse last year. She was the only one seriously backed to beat him in the Japan Cup, and while she never looked like doing so, she did run very well to finish four lengths second at Tokyo, with Stars On Earth, who reopposes here, just a length behind her in third.

Prior to the Japan Cup, Liberty Island had established herself as much the best filly of Japan’s classic crop of 2023. She was already a Group 1 winner at two and went on to sweep the fillies’ triple crown at three, winning the equivalents of the 1000 Guineas and Oaks (the latter by six lengths) in the first half of the year, and the third leg, the Shuka Sho at Kyoto, in the autumn. If successful, Liberty Island would become the sixth Japanese-trained winner of the Sheema Classic and would go one better than her sire Duramente who was runner-up to Postponed in 2016.

DERMA SOTOGAKE (123)

Liberty Island’s jockey Yuga Kawada won last year’s Dubai World Cup for Japan on Ushba Tesoro who’s bidding to repeat that feat but younger compatriot Derma Sotogake could be Japan’s best hope this time. He was most impressive on this card last year when Christophe Lemaire jumped him out from stall one in the UAE Derby and drew clear after making all the running to win by five and a half lengths with three other Japanese colts filling the frame behind him.

That earned Derma Sotogake a place in the Kentucky Derby line-up in which he wasn’t discredited in sixth. But he fared much better on a return trip to the States in the autumn for the Breeders’ Cup Classic where he ran a career best in finishing a length behind White Abarrio, ridden handily again and staying on to take second in the final fifty yards. Derma Sotogake needs to turn Saudi Cup form round with Senor Buscador and Ushba Tesoro from when they met in Riyadh last month where Derma Sotogake was only fifth but he couldn’t adopt his usual prominent pitch in that contest and can go closer here in a race lacking a stand-out on form.

SENOR BUSCADOR (122)

Some heavyweight US dirt performers have won the Dubai World Cup over the years, starting with Cigar in the inaugural running, and while Senor Buscador can’t yet claim to be one of those, he has leading claims to becoming the latest American winner.

The six-year-old’s biggest success at home for Todd Fincher came in the Grade 2 San Diego Handicap last summer, while he’d fallen short in his Grade 1 attempts, including when only seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November. But his neck second to National Treasure in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream was a step forward and he fared better still when landing the world’s richest race in Saudi Arabia at odds of 16/1 last month.

Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio looked the best US hope in the Saudi Cup but in a race where a very strong pace collapsed in the closing stages, the patiently-ridden Senor Buscador passed four rivals in the last hundred metres, including Ushba Tesoro right on the line, to get up for a head win under Junior Alvarado. It remains to be seen if things pan out quite so well for Senor Buscador again who’s bidding to become the first horse to complete the hugely valuable Saudi Cup-Dubai World Cup double.

KABIRKHAN (119)

With an American dirt pedigree and based with one of the longest-established trainers in Dubai, multiple champion Doug Watson, Kabirkhan doesn’t look anything out of the ordinary at first glance but his background is far from typical for a Dubai World Cup contender.

Having been bought for just $12,000 as a yearling at Keeneland, Kabirkhan began his racing career in Kazakhstan, though after winning all three of his races there he earned a promotion to racing in Russia where his winning streak continued and resulted in another move, this time to Watson in Dubai. Kabirkhan has now won all bar one of his eleven starts, with his only defeat coming in the Russian Derby last September. The winner of that race, Hero Mo, who’d also joined Watson, was four lengths behind Kabirkhan when the pair made their UAE debuts in a handicap in January.

Kabirkhan was impressive there and followed up in fine style again, and by a bit further still, in the Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge later in the month. More will be needed from Kabirkhan if he’s to emulate his sire California Chrome who won the 2016 Dubai World Cup, but he’s clearly a smart colt at the very least and an intriguing contender.

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