THE BIG READ / BHUPAT SEEMAR 12 ADIYAT RACING PLUS ISSUE 840 Thursday 4th April 2024 adiyat racing plus.com adiyat racing plus.com Tuz went like a rocket to win Seemar a second G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen title ‘I WAS QUIETLY CONFIDENT’ “I have to be honest; I was quietly confident going into the race. I never brag about my horse or talk big about them until the race as I think I might jinx them! “When Laurel River did his second last gallop and his last piece of work, I was quietly thinking to myself ‘how good is a horse going to have to be to come and beat him!’ “The biggest thing about this horse is that we have never seen the bottom of him. The gallops he was doing he was recovering so quickly from them, and he was like one of those top, elite athletes that has a natural ability to recover rapidly. “I’ve never seen that in a racehorse before; I’ve been in Dubai for 21 years and I was in America for five years before that and I worked for a trainer who has won a few Kentucky Derbys and I’ve never seen a horse recover as quickly as this horse. It is unbelievable.” Laurel River’s Dubai World Cup success was difficult to envisage after his subdued Dubai debut in the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint over 1200m where he was beaten 10 lengths. Seemar continues: “First of all, it was trainer error as I got him beaten the first time, but on the other hand he hadn’t run for 500 or so days so I was trying to take care of him, and I thought his raw ability may just get him there on his debut for us. “I think in hindsight it became a very good prep as we didn’t overtrain him, and we got him there for the Al Shindagha and took care of him. In turn, that insured he was a better horse for the Burj Nahaar and he certainly did get some training for that! “He is something I’ve never seen before, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be around horses that have won Kentucky Derbys. “I just haven’t seen what this horse has before and to do what he did and how he did it on Saturday was quite incredible.” The demolition job in the 1600m Burj Nahaar showcased Laurel River’s talents but most then felt he was a natural fit for the Godolphin Mile and a tilt at the $1.2m bonus. However, Seemar thought otherwise. “I talked about it with Juddmonte and told them that I really felt we ought to go for the ‘big one’. My reasoning was that he wasn’t stopping in the Burj Nahaar as Tadgh wrapped him up that day and he still won by half a dozen lengths,” he adds. “If you look at the bottom part of his pedigree, his dam who is by Empire Maker who won the Belmont mile-and-a-half and on the dam side again is Touch Gold who also won over 12 furlongs. And then there is AP Indy who won the Belmont again so there was a lot of stamina on his dam side. “I have to thank Juddmonte and the team so much as they said, ‘You do what you think is right’ and they had the confidence in me to do what I thought was right. “It’s incredible really as Juddmonte sent me an email last year and asked, ‘would you like to train for us?’ and I was already jumping up and down as who wouldn’t want to train for an organisation like Juddmonte? LAUREL RIVER’S DUBAI WORLD CUP SUCCESS MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT TO ENVISAGE AFTER HIS SUBDUED DUBAI DEBUT IN THE G3 AL SHINDAGHA SPRINT OVER 1200m WHERE HE WAS BEATEN 10 LENGTHS.
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