No stone has been left unturned ahead of the much-anticipated return of high-profile colt Pride Of Dubai.
With Coolmore dispatching Golden Slipper winner Vancouver to Ireland to further his career, all eyes will be on the Blue Diamond Stakes winner at Randwick on Saturday when he runs in the Eskimo Prince Stakes.
Pride Of Dubai
Coolmore and the China Horse Club bought into Vancouver after his Slipper win and secured shares in Pride Of Dubai after the Blue Diamond and before he won the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
The two colts are likely to stand alongside each other at stud having never clashed with Vancouver spelled after one spring start and Pride Of Dubai missing the first half of his three-year-old season with bone bruising in a hind joint.
Peter and Paul Snowden had originally planned to kick Pride Of Dubai off in the Expressway Stakes but decided to give him a second barrier trial ahead of Saturday’s Group Three Eskimo Stakes (1200m).
“All’s well with him and he will run in the Eskimo Prince,” Peter Snowden said.
“The Expressway was just a bit too soon for him.”
Fellow three-year-old King’s Troop also missed Saturday’s Group Two weight-for-age Expressway won by Our Boy Malachi on a wet track.
“He’s likely to go to the Eskimo Prince but I haven’t heard from the owners yet,” trainer Gerald Ryan said.
Cannyescent, the winner of an 1100m-race at Randwick on Tuesday for trainer Gabrielle Englebrecht, will also head to the race.
The gelding was tried twice at stakes level in the spring when he was an unlucky fifth in the Up And Coming Stakes and fourth in the Ming Dynasty Quality.
“I’m hoping he can get up to the Derby distance,” Englebrecht said.
“He’ll go to the Eskimo Prince and we’ll go on from there.”
