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Moore ready to face the dirt in Saturday��s G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen

24/03/2017

By David Morgan in Dubai

Hong Kong racing is synonymous with turf – dirt contests at Sha Tin being confined largely to the lower grades – yet in recent times the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan has afforded some of the city’s high-class sprinters a chance to showcase their off-turf potential on the international stage. In the past seven years, Hong Kong runners have returned one winner and six place-getters in the 1200m event.

John Moore is the trainer responsible for Hong Kong’s greatest Golden Shaheen moment. It came three years ago with Sterling City and followed third-place efforts by the Moore-trained One World (2010) and Sunny King (2011). The trainer’s record in the race is notable with only two of his five runners failing to make the frame; Moore’s overall Dubai World Cup meeting record returns a top three strike-rate of 33 percent, and only four of his 12 starters have failed to make the top five.

“Sterling City’s win was really something but we were going into that race with high hopes because we knew the Tapeta wasn’t going to be a problem,” Moore recalled as he braced against driving wind and rain at Meydan this morning (Friday, 24 March). “It was a breakthrough night for me and for the stable because we’d had other horses here that had run well without winning.

“It gave us incentive for the future, to come back here and compete on the world stage. Proving your horses off-shore is part and parcel of completing your career as a racehorse trainer.”

But this year, Moore is tangling with a different beast. All of his previous Golden Shaheen runners competed between the years 2010 and 2014 when Sterling City handed Moore his prized first – and so far only – Dubai triumph. Those were the Tapeta years, the black carpet of an artificial track that was ripped up and replaced with the current dirt surface ahead of the 2015 Dubai World Cup meeting.

Not Listenin’tome is the horse Moore has tasked with being his first to face the tough Meydan dirt track with its harsh kickback, and from gate 10 he will have his work cut out.

“This is a very different surface – it’s got a bit of depth to it – so this is quite a gamble. Moore said. “It’s a toss of the coin because we don’t get to test our best horses on the dirt in Hong Kong.”

But while Moore has not yet had any runners on the Dubai dirt, Hong Kong as a whole has and in recent times they have shone in the sprint race without actually winning. Super Jockey and Rich Tapestry finished second and third in the 2015 Golden Shaheen, the former beaten a head by the American Secret Circle after breaking from gate 12, and last year the Tony Millard-trained galloper was a brave fifth when suffering a foot injury at the break.

Previous to last year’s four starters in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (Rich Tapestry 7th, Domineer 8th and Master Kochanwong 9th) , only two Hong Kong runners had contested the race on dirt – Multidandy (11th in 2004) and Lucky Quality (9th in 2009), both at the old Nad Al Sheba racecourse.

Moore has faith that Not Listenin’tome can handle the Meydan dirt on Saturday night.

“He trained on the track last year, even though he raced on the turf, and indications are that Not Listenin’tome will handle it,” he said after watching the gelding work a lap and a half of the dirt track at a slow canter through the inclement bluster.

“The question is whether or not he can handle it at the speed that those good American horses will go on it,” Moore observed. “This fellow, whether he can sustain those revs is questionable but we are hopeful; Tommy Berry said yesterday that he floated over the ground, so we hope he can at least run top four or five.”

No track fears for Fownes
Caspar Fownes, another Hong Kong champion trainer, has no surface concerns. His Golden Shaheen candidate, Dundonnell, has proven form on the track thanks to placing second and then third in two recent prep runs at the course and distance. The latter came in the G3 Mahab Al Shimaal three weeks ago behind the re-opposing local runners, Mowarij and Cool Cowboy.  

“I kept him in the trotting ring this morning, he’s going well,” Fownes said after the seven-year-old undertook his eve-of-race exercise in the trotting ring.

Fownes is still seeking a first Dubai win having saddled eight beaten runners at Meydan previously, at both the Carnival and the Dubai World Cup meeting. But his overall record is good despite the lack of a victory on the board – with two seconds and two third placings he has a top three strike rate of 50 percent. His four past Dubai Golden Shaheen runners placed third (2012 Lucky Nine), fourth (2011 Green Birdie), 11th (2015 Lucky Nine) and eighth (2016 Domineer).

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s G1 Al Quoz Sprint (1200m, turf) contender, the John Size-trained Amazing Kids, was out before dawn again. The bay was his usual contented self as he worked a lap at a steady tempo under David Mo, and was back in his stable by the time the desert storm hit the track.

 

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