O’BRIEN’S DUAL DERBY HERO AUGUSTE RODIN THE ONE TO BEAT IN THE SHEEMA

By Duane Fonseca - 

Just like a number of top heavyweights might have thought of themselves as unlucky to ply their trade during the Muhammad Ali era, the connections of a number of top turf performers from Japan would have begrudged Equinox for his single-handed turf domination of the last few years that extended to Meydan where he routed a competitive field to win last year’s Longines Dubai Sheema Classic. With Tetsuya Kimura’s absolute superstar now retired, quite a few might have hoped to pick up the spoils in the Group 1 turf feature on the Dubai World Cup undercard. But Ballydoyle’s Irish legend of a trainer, Aidan O’Brien then went ahead and threw in the dampener when he nominated dual Derby champ and fivetime G1 winner Auguste Rodin to represent his yard. Deep Impact’s four year old son has been one of the stars of 2023, with the only blemish to his record coming in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July when eased off by Ryan Moore 300m from the finish on ground not to his liking. He rebounded to add the Irish Champion Stakes, before closing out his threeyear- old campaign with victory on the biggest stage of all; the Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf over 2400m, which he won by three quarters of a length, with Shahryar a further half length behind in third. Auguste Rodin also lines up alongside stablemate Point Lonsdale, last seen winning the G2 Huxley Stakes at Chester in May 2023. Hideaki Fujiwara’s 2022 winner Shahryar is one of four Japanese trained horses in this, a quartet that will look to fly the title back to ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’ for the second-straight year. Last seen running home a battling fifth in the Grade 1 Arima Kinen in December, Shahryar finished behind Stars On Earth (second) and Justin Palace (fourth), both top hopes in this thanks to their terrific recent form for trainers Mizuki Takayanagi and Haruki Sugiyama respectively. Stars On Earth went into the Arima Kinen on the back of a five-length third behind Equinox in the Japan Cup, with two earlier top-level placings further strengthening her position, while Justin Palace was the beaten favourite in the race and was a close second in the Japan Cup prior to that. Japan’s fourth runner is Mitsumasa Nakauchida’s four time G1 winner Liberty Island, who won the Shuka Sho, but failed to reel in Equinox in the mighty Japan Cup. Andre Fabre’s Junko returned with a bit of cash, but richer in experience after his sixth in the 2023 Dubai Turf and went on to add a pair of G1s to his resume, while Charlie Appleby has pinpointed Rebel’s Romance saying he was being worked towards this as the lone representative of Godolphin, the most successful owners with eight wins. Meanwhile, Richard Fahey’s G1 Jebel Hatta fourth Spirit Dancer, partly owned by Manchester United legend Sir Alex Ferguson, has his sights set on a Gulf treble, having already won the G2 Bahrain International Trophy and the G2 Neom Turf Cup. John and Thady Gosden’s 2023 Coronation Cup winner Emily Upjohn, Henk Grewe’s Arc seventh and G2 Dubai City of Gold third Sisfahan and Alban de Mieulle’s Arc 10th Simca Mille complete the line-up.