Dubai: Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom is not coming for the Dubai World Cup but another American horse that created history at Kentucky — a champion purebred Arabian named TM Fred Texas — will be lining up to take a shot at the Dubai Kahayla Classic Sponsored By Emaar, a Group 1 contest on Dubai World Cup day.
Now a 5-year-old, TM Fred Texas became the first-ever purebred Arabian winner of The President of the UAE Cup, a Grade 1 Stake for Arabians at Churchill Downs last year. The race, staged by the Emirates Equestrian Federation, was the first-ever Arabian race to be run at the famous Kentucky race course and TM Fred Texas outclassed some of America's top purebred Arabian horses to win that feature event.
Recent double
More recently, TM Fred Texas scooped two awards earlier this month at the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Darley Awards, winning the ‘Top 4-year-old US horse' as well as the ‘Horse of the Year' awards for his exploits in 2011.
Now owned by Qatar's Shaikh Hamad Bin Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani, TM Fred Texas was moved to Doha and was to take a shot at the HH the Emir's Sword, the biggest race in Qatar, but could not after a minor respiratory problem came to attention following his trip from Houston to Doha via Amsterdam where he had to endure a 16-hour stopover in very cold conditions.
A good run in the HH the Emir's Sword would have clinched the American champion a berth in the Kahayla line-up and there were some doubts over his presence in Dubai. But TM Fred Texas showed his class when he hacked the opposition in the 1,200 metres Losail Cup, a Pure Arabian Stakes in Doha soon after. Though it was a 6-furlong race, the horse continued to gallop for well over a mile's distance and was soon named as a Kahayla runner.
"We will be bringing him to Dubai on January 27 and he has come out well after that effort in the Losail Cup in which he ran the 6-furlong distance in a smart time of 1:17.01," said Sian Jones, spokesperson for the connections.
Keenly watched
TM Fred Texas is sired by Burning Sand whose Big Easy was a star in the UAE when he won two Group 1 races in 2005. Breeder Toad Moak (the TM which precedes every horse bred by him) said, "We were all waiting to see how he fares in the Emir's Sword. But now that he has been named in the Kahayla Classic we will be keenly watching his progress," said Moak, who scooped the Best Breeder award at the Darley's earlier this month.
UAE affinity
TM Fred Texas seems to have an affinity with UAE-supported races after he first finished second in the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup (Grade 3) race in Houston in April last year. In June he went on to accomplish historic Group 1 win in Kentucky and a month later was back to score another stunning success against classy opposition in the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup (Grade 2), another race organised by the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival in Delaware.
TM Fred Texas, now being handled by Mohammad Hamad Al Attiyah, is one of the three horses representing Qatar in the Purebred Arabian Group 1 Dubai Kahayla Classic on the big night with trainer Julian Smart's Harran ASF being one of the others. Smart is the only trainer to win the Kahayla Classic for Qatar when Jaafer won in 2010 though it was his second win on Dubai World Cup night, the first when he saddled Nez D'or to a superb win in the 2002 Kahayla Classic when he was based in Abu Dhabi.
