Dubai Kiaran McLaughlin may have been denied a second Dubai World Cup (G1) victory last month but the former UAE champion handler believes that he has the “best chance” of winning a first Kentucky Derby (G1) less than two weeks from now.
The American, who bagged three UAE trainers’ championships when he was based in Dubai between 1994 and 2003, saddles the Shadwell Stables-owned Mohaymen in the annual Churchill Downs showpiece that takes place on the first Saturday of May.
A $2.2-million Keeneland sale-topping yearling from 2014, Mohaymen delivered a spectacular piece of work to fuel McLaughlin’s recurring dream of winning the great race.
The routine, which saw the colt clock 46.80 seconds for furlongs readdressed the balance following his shock defeat in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park earlier this month, where he could only finish fourth behind fellow Kentucky hopeful Nyquist after being billed as the odds-on favourite.
Commenting on the work, McLaughlin said in a video posted by Horse Racing Nation: “He always works well, he’s never really had a bad work. We were happy with the work, obviously it was a bit quicker than maybe we anticipated.
“He’s worked in 47 and change many times and we thought he might work fast, but 46.4 is very fast.”
McLaughlin was even willing to ‘draw a line through’ his defeat in the Florida Derby, which was being blamed on a wet track and wide draw.
Prior to that Mohaymen, who races in the famous silks of Shadwell owner Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, reeled off four straight graded stakes wins.
Twelve months ago Mclaughlin had hopes of winning the Derby with Frosted, but the Godolphin-owned colt came up on a superstar in American Pharoah. He was also strongly fancied to win the Dubai World Cup at Meydan, but had to settle for fifth place behind California Chrome.
However, McLaughlin, who believes that the scenario is a lot different to the one in which Frosted was thrust into, said categorically of Mohaymen’s chances: “[I think] we have our best chance to win the Kentucky Derby this year there are no questions about it he’s a special colt.
“Like I said he’s five from six and we have never had anyone whose five for six, before so we’re very happy with him. He’s doing great and we like our chances.”
Neal McLaughlin, Kiaran’s brother and long-standing assistant, was even more wound-up about the horse’s prospects after his recent breeze, despite Mohaymen having being been dislodged from favouritism to a 10/1 chances behind his Florida Derby conqueror Nyquist (7/2).
“It gave me goosebumps,” said Neal describing the work. “There aren’t many moments in this game where you can get that, and that was one of them. That was one of those breezes that was really nice.”
The Kentucky Derby features a field of 20 horses who qualify based on their graded stakes earnings during the year.
