Dubai
The trainer of the legendary Cigar has vouched his horse Lea will be a “worthy challenger” to hot favourite California Chrome at the 20th running of the Dubai World Cup at the Meydan Racecourse on Saturday.
Bill Mott made a memorable debut for the Americans when Cigar went on to win the inaugural Dubai World Cup in 1996 to pick up the world’s richest purse of $4 million (Dh14.68 million). Till then, great horses had rarely travelled to another continent, duplicated their form, and then returned home in good shape.
However, Cigar had been an exception. After starting the year with a win in the Donn Handicap, the horse had travelled to Dubai to claim its biggest prize purse while holding off Soul of the Matter for a win by less than a length. In doing so, Cigar took its unbeaten winning streak to 14.
Cigar returned to the US and secured a repeat win in the Massachusetts Handicap, where the largest crowd in the history of Suffolk Downs turned out to see him record his 15th straight victory, the longest winning sequence for a major American stakes horse since Citation — who won 16 in-a-row in 1948 and 1950.
And now after two decades, Mott makes his return, and the American wants to mark it with a win with Lea, something similar to the one recorded by Cigar in 1996. “Lea shipped in good order here. He is a fairly fresh horse. He contacted a virus last year and we missed a full year, but given enough time off he went on to win. Since then he has improved after every race,” Mott told media here on Wednesday.
Given his vast experience, the 62-year-old American trainer reckons California Chrome will always be the favourite. And even though Lea may be a rank outsider for Saturday, Mott still considers his horse the worthy challenger.
“The thought about coming here was definitely on my mind. Lea has won a couple of big races back home and I thought we were sitting in a pretty good position. I thought he was a top five horse in the country, and even though California Chrome is the hot favourite, we are going to give it our best,” Mott said.
“The difference between the two [California Chrome and Lea] is that one comes with all the good things like he is a very good horse and he is the American horse of the year, while the other [Lea] is just a fresh horse and I think this will work to our advantage. Hopefully the best is yet to come to him,” Mott added.
The American trainer, who at 45 years became the youngest thoroughbred trainer ever inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998, was pleased with the new dirt surface at the Meydan Racecourse. In fact, Cigar had been coming up with wonderful results on turf when Mott decided to switch him on to dirt en route to his biggest purse in Dubai.
This time too is no different than two decades ago as Lea comes in with a strong showing on turf. “We are here because the race is back on dirt,” Mott affirmed.
“From what I could tell the surface looks very good and our horse handles it well. When we made the switch [from turf to dirt] we had the option of dirt race and turf race. He [Lea] deserved another chance and it just worked out. It is just a process of elimination. That’s exactly what happened with Cigar. He was running wonderfully on turf before coming here and winning,” Mott noted.
“Honestly, I don’t know anything much about the Japanese and the European horses. But I feel good about our chances here. For me, California Chrome is the horse we have seen the most and he [California Chrome] is the legitimate favourite and we are the worthy challengers,” he added.
