Special Fighter smashes track record as Keen Ice flops at Meydan

Special Fighter photo courtesy Dubai Racing Club/Andrew Watkins.

American shippers have underscored the quality of US dirt form over the course of the Dubai Carnival, but that trend was abruptly halted when Keen Ice was a distant seventh in Saturday’s Maktoum Challenge Round 3 (G1). Locally based Special Fighter, only sixth behind Frosted in the Maktoum Challenge Round 2 (G2), rebounded with a vengeance in track-record time in this final prep for the $10 million Dubai World Cup (G1).

Capping a surprising Super Saturday treble for trainer Musabah al Muhairi, Special Fighter provided conclusive proof that the Meydan dirt was heavily favoring speed on the rail. Every dirt winner on the card had the same trip – grab the early lead, get to the fence, and open up down the stretch as though on a conveyor belt.

Regular rider Fernando Jara spotted that pattern, and astutely changed tactics aboard the 33-1 shot. He hustled the son of Teofilo from post 6 in a race lacking significant early speed, and once securing the pole position, the rest fell into place. Special Fighter drew off by 4 1/2 lengths while completing about 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.09, eclipsing the record of 2:03.24 set by Prince Bishop in the 2015 World Cup.

Hong Kong’s Gun Pit gave game chase for second, finishing 2 3/4 lengths clear of the locally based Faulkner. Mubtaahij stayed on for a one-paced fourth, a neck shy of third, and has yet to recover his dynamism from last year’s Carnival.

In the circumstances, the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Watershed did well to rally from the rear for sixth. Keen Ice was out of his rhythm from the beginning, when Ryan Moore urged him from post 11 to get within early striking distance of the leaders. The one-run type was unable to adjust, and instead backpedaled at just the time he should have been cranking up.

 

The day’s prior front-running dirt winners were a bit more foreseeable, although their margins were likely inflated by their ideal trips on a track that favored them this night.

The Doug Watson-trained Cool Cowboy turned in a pacesetting clinic under Pat Dobbs in the Burj Nahaar (G3), a course-and-distance prep for the Godolphin Mile (G2). Watson has another prime contender for that race in One Man Band, so Dobbs will have a choice to make.