Sports Then and Now

Twice Over is looking to win the Dubai World Cup.

Henry Cecil has revealed just how pleased he was with the winning performance of his high-class Twice Over on his first outing of the winter in Dubai last week, a victory that has catapulted the Prince Khaled Abdullah-owned horse to favoritism for the Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest race, set to take place in the desert kingdom on March 26, writes Elliot Slater.

Beaten favorite in last year’s World Cup, the policy of flying the son of Observatory out to the Middle East just a few days before the race appeared to backfire as the dual Champion Stakes winner ran a lack lustre race in finishing tenth behind the Brazilian bred Gloria de Campeao. This time around Cecil has adopted different tactics and sent Twice Over out to Dubai some weeks ago giving him more time to fully acclimatize to the conditions.

The benefits of the change in policy were clear to see at Meydan last week when, (despite connections feeling he would come on a good deal for the outing), the triple Group 1 winner came down the centre of the track to sweep by a smart field to land the Al Maktoum Challenge by nearly three-lengths from Musir.

It was impossible not to be impressed with the performance as Twice Over confirmed that he can handle the artificial Tapeta surface and was elevated to ante-post 7/2 favourite for the $10 million contest, replacing Mike de Kock’s exciting South African colt Bold Silvano (5/1), while Aidan O’Brien’s Cape Blanco, (in whom connections sold a significant share to prominent owner Fitri Hay last week), has also advanced in the horse racing odds to 6/1.

Cecil admitted that he was “delighted” by his winner’s performance and is very hopeful that he will run a big race in the feature event itself, wiping away the disappointment of nearly twelve months ago.