By Kelsey Riley
Certain Lad provided the UK with a victory during the third night of the Dubai World Cup Carnival on Thursday when taking the Listed Zabeel Turf H. over 2000 metres for trainer Mick Channon. It was in fact a European one-two, with Mick Halford's Simsir closing late for second.
Certain Lad flashed promise at two, winning his first two starts before finishing third in G2 Railway S. at The Curragh. He picked up a listed win in the fall going a mile Lyon Parilly, and was gelded after finishing sixth in a Group 3 in Germany. He took a few starts to find his footing last year at three, winning a Haydock handicap going a mile in July and successfully stepping up to this race's mile and a quarter trip at Ayr when last seen on Sept. 21.
Off towards the rear of the field, Certain Lad took cover under Ben Curtis on the rail, with Simsir directly to his outside down the backstretch and Dream Castle one path further out and just off them. Certain Lad was put to a drive by Curtis upon straightening and gradually ground down the front-running Godolphin pair Desert Fire and Art Du Val. He hit the lead with a furlong to run and was three-quarters of a length to the good of the rallying Simsir at the line, equaling the track record in the process.
“He's improving with every run,” said Curtis, who was in town for one day to partner Certain Lad. “It's unbelievable. The way he travelled today was even better. He's a handful, but it's probably a good thing, because if he wasn't a handful, they probably wouldn't have flown me out to ride him. He does everything a horse should do to get himself beat, but he keeps winning. In the prelims he gets very warm and is notorious for it. He gets hot and sweaty, but it doesn't seem to bother him in the race. He ran a bit fresh and keen the first two furlongs, but once he got into a rhythm, I was delighted. He picked them up well and kept going all the way to the line. He ran a good race and the time backed it up.”
Trainer Mick Channon added, “He has always been a good horse, he was in good form and we had the [nerve] to go and it worked out. We've always thought a lot of him. He won a listed race as a 2-year-old and was consistent last year. It's hard to place these horse, but we knew we could be competitive tonight. You never know going against Godolphin. We've always been competitive and never slow at having a crack. That's why we have race horses. We'll have a go at the best if we can and go on to the next race [at Meydan].”
Certain Lad is out of the Galileo mare Chelsey Jayne, who was herself unplaced but is out of the G2 Futurity S. winner Lady Lahar (GB) (Fraam {GB}) and a sister to four stakes horses including the G3 Prix du Pin winner and Group 1-placed Jallota (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) and listed-winner Classic Legend (GB) (Galileo {Ire}). Chelsey Jayne has a 2-year-old colt by former shuttler Pride of Dubai (Aus).
ZABEEL TURF SPONSORED BY RIVIERA 1-Listed, $175,000, Meydan, 1-16, 3yo/up, 10fT, 2:00.67, gd.
1–CERTAIN LAD (GB), 118, g, 4, Clodovil (Ire)–Chelsey Jayne
(Ire), by Galileo (Ire). (13,000gns Ylg '17 TAOCT; 170,000gns
RNA '19 TATAUT). O-C R Hirst; B-Barry Walters (GB); T-Mick
Channon J-Ben Curtis. $105,000. Lifetime Record: SW-Fr,
GSP-Ire & SP-Eng, 18-6-1-2, $229,411.
2–Simsir (Ire), 117, g, 4, Zoffany (Ire)–Simawa (Ire), by Anabaa.
O-H.H. Aga Khan; B-His Highness the Aga Khan's Studs S.C.
(IRE); T-Mick Halford. $35,000.
3–Desert Fire (Ire), 128, h, 5, Cape Cross (Ire)–Crystal House
(Chi), by Golden Voyager. O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Saeed bin
Suroor. $17,500.
Margins: 3/4, 3/4, 1.
Also Ran: First Nation (GB), Art Du Val (GB), Big Country (Ire), Dream Castle (GB), Dubai Horizon (Ire), Astronomer (Ire), Loxley (Ire), Famous Wolf (Fr).
Click for the Racing Post result. VIDEO.
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