Laurel River wins the Dubai World Cup

Laurel River produced a stunning front-running performance to win the $12-million Group 1 Dubai World Cup by eight and a half lengths on Saturday (30th March).

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 31st March 2024, by Alan Carasso:

When the late Arrogate overcame a world of trouble to win the 2017 Gr.1 Dubai World Cup, many racing fans said it was the best performance in the history of the race. To some, it rates right up there with some of the best performances ever seen. It's entirely possible that Juddmonte's Laurel River managed to upstage him Saturday with an absolutely stunning, front-running tour-de-force in the $12-million Gr.1 Dubai World Cup at Meydan, a result that even those closest to him may not have anticipated.

Winner of the 2022 Gr.2 Pat O'Brien Stakes - where a horse called Senor Buscador was third - Laurel River was somewhat controversially withdrawn from that year's Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, a race for which he was likely to be favoured. Sidelined for a spell, Juddmonte elected to transfer their homebred from Bob Baffert to the Dubai-based stable of leading trainer Bhupat Seemar in the summer of 2023. To say things were off to an inauspicious beginning in the Emirates would be an understatement of monumental proportions. Laurel River faded tamely to finish seventh in the Gr.3 Al Shindagha Sprint on local debut in late January, but as disappointing as that effort was, he bounced back to post an equally emphatic six and three-quarter length victory in the Gr.3 Burj Nahaar on Super Saturday to punch his ticket to World Cup night.

Conventional wisdom dictates that winning the Burj Nahaar leads to a start in the Gr.2 Godolphin Mile over the same course and distance on the big night, but Seemar and the Juddmonte braintrust called an audible and routed the six-year-old to the Gr.1 Dubai World Cup instead: a race 12 times as valuable, but incrementally more challenging on a few levels, not least the 2000-metre distance of the race. Additionally, the Godolphin Mile was likely to attract the speedy Saudi Crown and defending champion Isolate, and opting for the World Cup would eliminate the possibility of a suicidal pace duel.

"I feel like the 10 furlongs is a stretch for him, but that is a speed-favoring track and he might be the lone speed," Juddmonte's Garrett O'Rourke told the TDN when World Cup plans were confirmed on 7th March. After drawing 12 of 12 at Wednesday's barrier draw at the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa, many would have further downgraded the chances of Laurel River, reasoning that a horse already questionable to see out the trip would have to go hard - perhaps too hard - in order to secure the front. After all, another speedball -Panthalassa - had similar misfortune at the draw last year and dropped away to finish well down the field.

But there would be no such repeat Saturday evening, as Laurel River decisively surged into a clear lead with a half-mile to travel and went on to score by eight and a half lengths, the largest winning margin for a World Cup at Meydan.

"I'm still coming to terms with what's happened," Seemar said. "I think it'll probably sink in in another day or two. It's absolutely amazing. [Jockey] Tadhg [O'Shea] said this morning 'we're drawn 12, I'm not going to be two-minded about it, I'm going to go forward.'"

And go forward he did, sliding over to lead three off the inside with a circuit to travel as he had Military Law and Dura Erede for early company. As they turned towards the backstretch, Defunded circled up so as not to sit wide the trip, and the two of them controlled the pace through the middle stages. They put the better part of a half-dozen lengths on Dura Erede and the rail-skimming international favorite Kabirkhan rounding the turn, and by the time Laurel River passed the 600-metre pole, it was really all over but the shouting. Showing no signs of stopping as he hit the top of the lane, Laurel River opened up by perhaps as many as 10 lengths and jogged it in from there. Senor Buscador got first run on defending champion Ushba Tesoro, but was run down on the wire for second while adding another $1.2 million to his $10-million grab
in the Gr.1 Saudi Cup in February.

Jockey Tadhg O'Shea commented: "When he had his first run for the stable, we thought he'd disappointed, but we never lost faith. He was explosive last time and I said the other morning to Bhupat, I pulled him aside and said I'd never ridden a horse with his ability ever. And he'd just done an easy work on his own."

"With the dirt you can't be half-hearted, you have to go forward. If he didn't stay, he didn't stay. We were aware of that. The main thing that won the race, it's easy to say when you win, but I was able to keep filling him up and filling him up."