CITYSCAPE BREAKS COURSE RECORD IN DUBAI DUTY FREE

Click above to watch Cityscape winning the Dubai Duty Free (G1)…
(Image : Oliver Clarke/Gulf News - Footage : Dubai Racing Meydan)

US$5,000,000 DUBAI DUTY FREE (Group 1)
Meydan, Turf, 1800m
31 March 2012

In the lead up to Saturday’s G1 Dubai Duty Free over 1800m at Meydan, there was at least some question as to how, or rather whether, Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Cityscape (GB) (Selkirk) would A: see out the 1800 meters of the race at his first attempt and B: handle reasonably quick ground.

The lightly raced chestnut with the big bald face answered in no uncertain terms, streaking clear from pacesetting Await The Dawn (USA) (Giant’s Causeway) in the upper stretch before reporting home an easy 4 1/4-length winner. “I can’t believe it,” commented winning trainer Roger Charlton. “The race panned out absolutely as we thought it would. Await The Dawn weakened pretty quickly to leave us in front plenty early enough, but that wasn’t a problem.”

A well-beaten eighth at 50-1 in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville August 15, Cityscape was far too good for his rivals in the G3 Solonaway Stakes at The Curragh September 11, winning by 2 1/2 lengths in the soft. Shipped to Milan for the G1 Gran Premio Vittorio di Capua 13 days later, he missed by a nose to the top-class Dick Turpin (Ire) (Arakan), then relished the soft going at Saint-Cloud to land the G3 Prix Perth October 30. Connections had the misfortune of drawing the 12 hole for the G1 Hong Kong Mile December 11, but despite racing five wide on the turn, nearly got the job done while failing by a nose.

Cityscape was away smartly from the 11 hole, and jockey James Doyle used his mount just a touch to get over to be forwardly placed three wide, as Await The Dawn settled into an easy pace up front. Given a bit more rein as they approached the turn, the 6-year-old tugged his way past Musir (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice) up into second, and, by the time they’d reached the 700-meter marker, Cityscape was sent to the head of affairs. Shaken up at the quarter pole while traveling best of anything, he quickened clear and was never in any danger while establishing a new course record. The Mike de Kock-trained Mutahadee (Ire) (Encosta De Lago) and Mahmoud Al Zarooni-trained City Style (USA) (City Zip) completed an outstanding run at the Carnival, finishing second and third, respectively.

“This horse has an amazing turn of foot,” the winning jockey said. “He just kept finding; he was even idling a little in the closing stages. It was a great feeling and the biggest day in my life.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

DUBAI DUTY FREE 2012 : FINAL FIELD

Mike de Kock trained Musir
(Photo : The National)

US$5,000,000 DUBAI DUTY FREE (Group 1)
Meydan, Turf, 1800m
31 March 2012

FINAL FIELD

#	Horse	Kg	OR	Jockey	Trainer
1	GREEN DESTINY (IRE)	57.0	119	Glyn Schofield	Herman Brown
2	AWAIT THE DAWN (USA)	57.0	121	Joseph O’Brien	Aidan O’Brien
3	RAJSAMAN (FR)	57.0	117	Royston Ffrench	Ali Rashid Al Raihe
4	AMBITIOUS DRAGON (NZ)	57.0	122	Douglas Whyte	Anthony Millard
5	MUSIR (AUS)	57.0	117	Kevin Shea	Mike de Kock
6	DELEGATOR (GB)	57.0	116	Lanfranco Dettori	Saeed bin Suroor
7	DARK SHADOW (JPN)	57.0	121	Yuichi Fukunaga	Noriyuki Hori
8	CALIFORNIA MEMORY (USA)	57.0	120	Matthew Chadwick	Tony Cruz
9	XTENSION (IRE)	57.0	118	Jeffrey Lloyd	John Moore
10	MUTAHADEE (IRE)	57.0	116	Christophe Soumillon	Mike de Kock
11	CITYSCAPE (GB)	57.0	121	James Doyle	Roger Charlton
12	PRESVIS (GB)	57.0	120	Ryan Moore	Luca Cumani
13	CITY STYLE (USA)	57.0	113	Mickael Barzalona	Mahmoud Al Zarooni
14	RIO DE LA PLATA (USA)	57.0	118	Silvestre De Sousa	Saeed bin Suroor
15	WIGMORE HALL (IRE)	57.0	117	Jamie Spencer	Michael Bell
16	DUBAWI GOLD (GB)	57.0	117	John Murtagh	Richard Hannon
	Reserves
17	ALBAASIL (IRE)	57.0	115	Reserve	Doug Watson

Correct as at 28 March 2012

www.dubaiworldcup.com

MUTAHADEE : THE MIKE DE KOCK FACTOR

Click above to watch Mutahadee winning the Dubal Trophy…
(Image and Footage : Dubai Racing Meydan)

MUTAHADEE (Ire)
Encosta De Lago (AUS)- Mosaique Bleue (GB)

One of our regular correspondents from America, ‘Green Beret’ is an avid Dubai-watcher, and he knows the form there as well as anyone we know. These are his thoughts on Mike de Kock and Mutahadee :

Dear Summerhill Stud,

You guys know from many comments over the years what a big fan of trainer Mike De Kock and his horses that I am. But I just have to say, it literally floored me to see what De Kock has done with Mutahadee. To this point in the carnival, the most impressive horse Mike De Kock has sent out. More impressive than Bold Silvano, Master of Hounds, or Mahbooba, IMO.

When Mutahadee raced for trainer Tommy Stack in Ireland, he was a very good horse. But Mike De Kock has turned him into a great horse!! And therein lies the genius of Mike De Kock. In his 2 wins at the Carnival, no other horse has been close to Mutahadee. Well, until Soumillon was easing him down in Thursday’s race.

I’m telling you guys, if De Kock gets this horse into the G1 Dubai Duty Free field this year? Sell your wives and mortgage your houses to bet on him, because he won’t be touched in that race, IMO. Regards to all at Summerhill Stud!!

GBeret83
United States

MUSIR CONTINUES TO IMPRESS IN AL RASHIDIYA

Click above to watch Musir winning the Al Rashidiya (Gr2)…
(Image and Footage : Meydan Racecourse)

Al Rashidiya Sponsored By Dubai Duty Free
Meydan, Turf, 1800m
26 January 2012

Musir could not have been more impressive when winning the US$200,000 Al Rashidiya (Group 2), the 1800m turf feature at Meydan on Thursday evening, in front of a large crowd which included His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minster of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Jockey Christophe Soumillon oozed confidence throughout on the Mike de Kock-trained five-year-old son of Redoute’s Choice who was following up an equally impressive win in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 (Group 3) over 1600m on the all-weather surface on his previous start.

Having his first turf start in Dubai, Mike de Kock’s charge was carrying a penalty having won a valuable turf prize in Turkey (the £230,000 Topkapi Trophy (Group 2)) last year and looks a horse for the others to fear throughout the 2012 Dubai World Cup Carnival.

Never far off the pace under Christophe Soumillon, Musir eased to the front early in the straight and never looked in danger afterwards. De Kock is currently in South Africa for the J&B Met (Grade 1) and Soumillon said : “This is my favourite horse as he gave me my first big wins in Dubai. There was no pace in the race at all and that has suited him as he has such good acceleration. We think he is better on grass than the all-weather and hopefully a genuine Dubai Duty Free contender.”

FINAL RESULT

#	Margin	Horse	Kg	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.0	MUSIR (AUS)	58.5	7	C Soumillon	Mike de Kock
2	1	CITY STYLE (USA)	57.0	3	M Barzalona	Mahmoud Al Zarooni
3	3.5	MARCRET (ITY)	57.0	5	M Demuro	Marco Botti
4	1.25	TROIS ROIS (FR)	57.0	2	T O’Shea	Ismail Mohammed
5	0.75	PRESVIS (GB)	57.0	6	R Moore	Luca Cumani
6	0.75	LE DRAKKAR (AUS)	57.0	1	L Dettori	Abdulla bin Huzaim
7	0.25	WIN FOR SURE (GER)	57.0	8	G Benoist	Xavier Nakkachdji
8	2	RAJSAMAN (FR)	58.5	4	R Ffrench	Ali Rashid Al Raihe

Extract from Emirates Racing Authority

MUSIR ULTRA-IMPRESSIVE IN AL MAKTOUM CHALLENGE ROUND 1

Click above to watch Musir winning the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1…
(Photo : Gulf News - Footage : Meydan Racecourse)

Al Maktoum Challenge R1 Sponsored By Etisalat
Meydan, All Weather, 1600m
12 January 2012

Etisalat was the sponsor of last night’s third meeting of the Dubai World Cup Carnival and the phone lines to South Africa must have been buzzing after the ultra-impressive victory by Musir (AUS) (Redoute’s Choice (AUS) - Dizzy De Lago (AUS)) in the $US200,000 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 Group 3 , the featured 1600m all-weather contest.

Trained by South African master-trainer Mike de Kock, Musir, the UAE 2000 Guineas and UAE Derby winner of 2010, was always going well under jockey Christophe Soumillon who eased his mount to the front from 200m out to score an easy victory with stable companion Master Of Hounds (USA) (Kingmambo (USA) - Silk And Scarlet (GB)) running on strongly to snatch second under jockey Kevin Shea.

Mike de Kock was obviously delighted and said afterwards: “We thought both would run well but I do not think we would have predicted a 1-2. Musir has been a great servant in recent years and is getting stronger and tougher with age. I do genuinely believe he is a better turf horse and the Dubai Duty Free is his big target so he will switch to the grass now. We hope Master Of Hounds is a Dubai World Cup horse so that is a good start with him. He was badly drawn and needs further so we are very pleased. He will continue in the second round of the Al Maktoum Challenge.”

Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1
Final Results

#	Margin	Horse	Kg	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.0	MUSIR (AUS)	56.0	4	C Soumillon	Mike de Kock
2	3.0	MASTER OF HOUNDS (USA)	56.0	12	K Shea	Mike de Kock
3	1.0	SECRECY (GB)	56.0	9	K Fallon	Saeed bin Suroor
4	0.5	MENDIP (USA)	56.0	1	L Dettori	Saeed bin Suroor
5	0.75	DERBAAS (USA)	56.0	2	R Hills	Ali Rashid Al Raihe
6	Sh	DANCE AND DANCE (IRE)	56.0	3	J Spencer	Edward Vaughan
7	1.5	KAVANGO (IRE)	56.0	8	P Cosgrave	Mubarak bin Shafya
8	0.25	ESCAPE ROUTE (USA)	56.0	6	R Mullen	Satish Seemar
9	1.0	LE DRAKKAR (AUS)	56.0	5	A Ajtebi	Abdulla bin Huzaim
10	1.5	FANUNALTER (GB)	56.0	10	R Moore	Marco Botti
11	0.75	SNAAFY (USA)	56.0	11	T O’Shea	Musabah Al Muhairi
12	15.5	XIN XU LIN (BRZ)	56.0	7	M Barzalona	Mahmoud Al Zarooni

Extract from Emirates Racing Authority