DUBAI WORLD CUP adiyat racing plus.com 14 ADIYAT RACING PLUS ISSUE 838 Thursday 21 st March 2024 By Michele MacDonald Memories flow as streams in waterfalls, tumbling over one another as they chase after the shadows of what was and will never be again. For anyone who has been involved with the Dubai World Cup, those memories are likely manyfold, rich with experiences that could never be mined anywhere else. In general, one aspect I remember most is the early mornings, with the stirring call to prayer from the mosque near the track echoing in the pre-dawn air, followed later by the haunting calls of palm doves and the chirping of hoopoes. And always the barrage of CURLIN STANDS AT THE PEAK OF A RICH COLLECTION OF DUBAI WORLD CUP MEMORIES beauteous horses barreling through their works, nostrils aflare and hoofbeats drumming the earth. What horses! Those mornings were our introductions to them and their distinctive quirks and rippling muscles prior to their indelible performances on the sport’s richest day of racing, first during the years within the intimate confines of Nad Al Sheba and later around the overwhelming expanse of Meydan. Beginning with the breathtaking victory of Dubai Millennium in the 2000 Dubai World Cup — after which the two eldest sons of Sheikh Mohammed took turns jumping on the champion’s back — and the screams of euphoric Japanese when Stay Gold pipped Godolphin’s Fantastic Light the following year to begin a catapulting of both the Longines Dubai Sheema Classic and Japanese racehorses to the forefront of the sport; memories flood the mind. In the final chapter at Nad Al Sheba, when Well Armed stormed home, victorious jockey Aaron Gryder arrived at the post-race party twirling his gold whip, and he kindly let a few of us feel the true weight of this souvenir as we waved it in the air, toasting him and trainer Eoin Harty. Then there was the shock of 2012, when premier American trainer Bob Baffert suffered a heart attack while preparing runners for YET ONE DUBAI WORLD CUP WEEK AND ITS KING STANDS ABOVE ALL FOR ME: CURLIN (PICTURED) WINNING IN 2008.
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