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From the Backstretch Sheikh's brash prediction backed up by strong stable
Posted: Friday May 05, 2000 07:58 PM By Mark Beech, Sports Illustrated LOUISVILLE -- A little more than a year after his Godolphin Racing stable made a disappointing debut in the Kentucky Derby, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, of Dubai, has returned to Louisville to attempt another run for the roses. Friday morning, he boldly guaranteed a victory on Saturday for his colt, China Visit, who has only two career starts, the fewest of any horse in this year’s field. “You all better watch out,” he told reporters during a surprisingly candid press conference outside the Godolphin barn on the Churchill Downs backside. “We will win. When Sheikh Mohammed decides to win a race, he will win.” Last year, on the eve of the Derby, Sheikh Mohammed stood in the same spot and proclaimed his burning desire to win the race. To that end, Godolphin brought the highly regarded colt, Worldly Manner, to Kentucky after prepping him in Dubai with a series of training races. In the Derby, the colt ran well for the first mile or so, but faded in the stretch and finished a disappointing seventh. Two weeks later, in the Preakness, Worldly Manner again tired badly and finished 12th out of 13 horses. “Worldly Manner was a miler,” Sheikh Mohammed said Friday. “That’s why he didn’t stay.” Though the sheikh’s prediction for Saturday might sound brash, he certainly has the resources to back it up. He is a member of Dubai’s ruling family, and for most of the last decade, he has been buying up the world’s best breeding stock. His stable has dominated the international racing circuit. Godolphin achieved its greatest success in the U. S. last November, when Daylami, who many experts regarded as the best race horse of 1999, won the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park. China Visit’s record shows that the farthest he has run was in his impressive victory in the 1 1/8-mile United Arab Emirates Derby. Many observers, however, feel that the horse has probably been running against his stable mates in trial races at distances of up to 1 1/4 miles. No American entry in the Derby has run farther than a mile and an eighth in his career. The consensus among American horsemen is that no matter how good the Godolphin stable is, a horse can’t be ready to run in the Derby unless he has been racing in the traditional American prep races. Sheikh Mohammed disagrees, and he has followed the same schedule with China Visit this spring that he did with Worldly Manner in 1999. “We can win from Dubai, and we will do it,” Sheikh Mohammed insists. “[My horses] will not have any prep races here. From my home, which is two kilometers from the training center, I can see my horses. I can’t do that if they are over here.” Also racing in Godolphin’s dark blue silks on Saturday will be Curule, who finished third to China Visit in the U.A.E. Derby. Both China Visit and Curule have been installed as 50-1 longshots on the Churchill Downs morning line.
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