Laurel River thrashes rival in Godolphin Mile prep

Laurel River produced a towering, front-running victory in Saturday's G.3 Burj Nahaar at Meydan Racecourse, the course-and-distance prep for the G.2 Godolphin Mile.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 3rd March 2024, by Alan Carasso:

The result represented a complete turnaround from his local debut on 26th January when he was an early factor in the Gr.3 Al Shindagha Sprint over 1200 metres, but faded tamely from two and a half furlongs out and finished a distant seventh.

Drawn wide in 14 for this contest over the mile, the homebred was well into stride and was restrained a bit through the opening exchanges before being allowed to stride into the lead by Tadhg O'Shea after the first 400 metres. Full of running at every stage of the race thereafter, Laurel River had amassed an imposing advantage turning them in and kept on very nicely to take it by six and three-quarter lengths in good time.

Previously trained by Bob Baffert, the bay won four of his seven starts in the U.S., capped by his three and three-quarter length success in the seven-furlong Pat O'Brien at Del Mar in August 2022. His current trainer Bhupat Seemar served as a Baffert assistant for some time.
Jockey Tadhg O'Shea commented: "He's a high-class horse and, to be fair to him, he hadn't run in 18 months when we ran him over six furlongs. We weren't disappointed the last time, but they're racehorses and not computers; sometimes they just need a run to get back on their A-Game. Hats off to Bhupat and the team and to Juddmonte for keeping the faith with him."