Dubawi Legend set to head straight to the Guineas

Dewhurst runner-up looking to put Breeders’ Cup run behind him.

Dewhurst runner-up Dubawi Legend is set to go straight to Newmarket for the Qipco 2000 Guineas without a prior run.

The son of Dubawi was beaten two lengths by Native Trail in the seven-furlong Group One at Newmarket in October and was subsequently badly drawn in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar the following month, where he finished 10th of 13.

Hugo Palmer insists he has no qualms about pitching the Dr Ali Ridha-owned colt into a potential rematch at HQ with Native Trail.

He said: “Obviously, we were disappointed with everything that happened in America.

“We had a brute of a draw on the horse’s fourth start, but I had very much made it clear to the owners that if we went, there is a long and illustrious list of European Classic winners that have been beaten at the Breeders’ Cup as juveniles. We hope we can add to that illustrious list.

“He has done well physically since then. He has grown about an inch, which surprised me. He was probably barely 16 hands last year, so he has done well and he will very much have Guineas entries and probably a number of them.”

He went on: “I don’t think he will have a prep-run. He ended his year quite late and it was mid-November by the time he got back to England.

“He has had a nice break and he is the second-highest-rated two-year-old in Europe, so I don’t feel I need to go into a trial to prove he is good enough to justify his place in a Guineas.

“He handled the undulations at Newmarket very well and for a good deal of the last two furlongs, he looked the most likely winner in the Dewhurst.

“It would be quite hard not to go to Newmarket, for all the while that Newmarket will probably be the strongest race.

“In the back of my mind he has always shown an enormous amount of speed and I believe that he will stay a mile. I don’t think he will ever get further.

“His father won an Irish Guineas, his mother (Lovely Pass) won a UAE Guineas and his sister Golden Pass was by Golden Horn and she was a Listed winner and Group-placed when second in the Park Hill over a mile and three-quarters. She was a very different individual.”

Ebro River and jockey Shane Foley gave the yard a Group One win in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh
Ebro River and jockey Shane Foley gave the yard a Group One win in the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh (Niall Carson/PA)

Palmer, currently based at Kremlin Cottage Stables in Newmarket but in discussions about the possibility of taking over at ex-footballer Michael Owen’s Manor House Stables in Cheshire, will not give Group One winner Ebro River a Classic entry.

He stepped up a furlong in trip for the National Stakes and the Prix Lean-Luc Lagardere after his Phoenix Stakes success, but was beaten on both occasions.

Palmer said: “The plan at the moment is definitely not the Guineas.

“We explored seven furlongs twice last year, once relatively satisfactorily, but still not the answer we wanted and the second time very unsatisfactorily. I am content to say that this is not a miler.

“I think, all being well, he will start in the Pavilion Stakes (Ascot, April 27), which is the course and distance of the Commonwealth Cup and we will see how we get on there.

“I would like to think he will go Pavilion, Sandy Lane Stakes (Haydock, May 21), Ascot – but the King’s Stand could just be an option by that stage. He could go King’s Stand and Commonwealth Cup.”

Despite Dubawi Legend’s Del Mar disappointment, stablemate Hierarchy ran a cracker in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, going down by just a length and a quarter.

Owned by David Howden and Qatar Racing, the Mehmas colt could also be another top sprinter in the making.

Palmer added: “Hierarchy has done really well. He has broadened and shrunk down on his legs a little bit without massively growing upwards.

“He did really well last year and he just wasn’t quite right before the Cornwallis and so we had to back off him and get him right for the Breeders’ Cup, but the time we missed to get him right is what cost him.

“He looked like he was going to win his race for all money, but he just flattened out in the last 50 yards.

“He has the option of coming back to the King’s Stand. It would be a pain to consistently run my two fastest horses against each other!

“But they will be racing against each other if they had different trainers. We have to treat each horse individually.”

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