Lord North limbering up for Dubai Turf

The seven-year-old dead-heated with this year’s Saudi Cup winner Panthalassa in a thrilling renewal of the nine-furlong contest 12 months ago.

And while that rival has gone for the World Cup this time around, there is a strong Japanese contingent once again – led by last season’s Japanese Derby winner Do Deuce and the Grade 1 winner Serifos.

Lord North warmed up for this race with an impressive victory in last month’s Group 3 Winter Derby at Lingfield – one place better than last year – though Gosden is more than aware that his charge is in for a stern test.

Speaking at the training track on Tuesday morning, he said: “It’s the same route he took to Meydan as last year and he was a lot more impressive this year, winning well on the back of a long break. It was nice to see him do that under hands and heels and do it well.

“It was very tight last year! The form of that win was franked pretty nicely in the Middle East when Panthalassa won the Saudi Cup last month.

“The Japanese horses have been doing exceptionally well over here for the last few years and they bring their best horses over here. They’re going to be hard to take on so we’ll see.”

Lord North has been joined in the Middle East by stablemates Trawlerman and Mostahdaf, who go for the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup and the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic respectively, and Gosden reported that all three have settled in well since arriving on Saturday,

He said: “All three horses have gone for a canter on the training track this morning. This is their first day out of quarantine, so they’ve just had a nice stretch to ease them into things. Both Mostahdaf and Trawlerman ran in Saudi last month, but they have been back home since for a couple of weeks and then all three travelled over here on Saturday.

“For the rest of the week we’ll do a mixture between the training track and the main track and we’ll canter them on the grass to allow them to get a feel of things. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. All three of them have travelled before which is a plus and this is Lord North’s third season here, so he knows the place well. All three of them seem to be adapting well since arriving here.”

Mostahdaf arrives here on the back of what was arguably a career-best effort to win the Group 3 Neom Turf Cup over a furlong and a half further at last month’s Saudi Cup meeting and his trainer is hopeful that last season’s September Stakes winner can continue his upward trajectory here.

He continued: “Mostahdaf is obviously a horse who has always had a lot of talent, he was training well into the race (at Saudi) and he put a pretty solid field to bed pretty smoothly.

“He has been a very good performer throughout his career but he certainly improved again when winning in Saudi last month, so you’d like to think he could continue on that upward trajectory.

“You’ve got the option of going over nine furlongs or a mile and a half here, he won over a mile and a quarter last time but he has form over a mile and a half in the UK so it made sense to go for that rather than step him back down.”

Meanwhile, last year’s Ebor Handicap winner Trawlerman was down the field in handicap company at Riyadh last month, but he was an excellent third in Group 2 company on Champions Day at Ascot prior to that and his trainer feels there’s every chance that there’s more to come yet.

He said: “When Trawlerman ran last time in Riyadh it was a handicap so he’s back into Group company now. We’d like to think that he can develop into a horse who can become a regular in this type of race back in the UK.”

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