Japanese superstar Forever Young heads into Saturday’s $12 million Dubai World Cup as the overwhelming favourite, with trainer Yoshito Yahagi confident in his horse’s condition despite concerns over potential rain at Meydan.
DUBAI: The world’s greatest racehorses converge on Meydan this Saturday, but make no mistake about it: this is Forever Young’s stage, and the Japanese superstar is ready to own it.
Victory in the $12 million Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates, would do more than add another trophy to an already extraordinary career. It would make Forever Young the simultaneous holder of the three biggest all-aged prizes in dirt racing, joining the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Saudi Cup, which he claimed for the second time last month, to complete a treble that no horse in history has ever achieved. It would also push him past Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior to the top of the all-time earnings list.
Trainer Yoshito Yahagi, the man every journalist at Meydan wanted a word with this week, did not hide his feelings at Thursday’s media conference. “Of course he is a superstar for us and I worship him like he’s a god,” Yahagi said. “A god came to my stable and I cannot show enough appreciation for that.”
On paper, the case for Forever Young is almost unanswerable. He holds a 10-pound ratings advantage over Magnitude and an 11-pound edge over last year’s winner Hit Show. In a small but competitive field, those margins are significant.
There is one thing keeping Yahagi awake, however, and it has nothing to do with the opposition. “I am particularly concerned at the moment that I don’t want to see it raining heavily on Saturday, definitely not,” he said, with the UAE’s unsettled weather this week adding a layer of uncertainty to an otherwise clear picture.
Forever Young arrives at Meydan in excellent condition, having completed a light training session on the dirt track earlier in the week as connections managed his workload carefully with one eye on the going. Interestingly, Yahagi revealed that this year’s easier Saudi Cup victory may not have been the ideal preparation. “A shorter gap is easier to manage and maintain his condition,” he explained. “He can get too relaxed, while this year the Saudi Cup wasn’t a hard race.”
Jockey Ryusei Sakai, who has grown into one of the world’s elite riders in lockstep with Forever Young’s rise to global dominance, retains the ride. Yahagi was emphatic about his value to the operation. “Ryusei Sakai is an essential piece of the team,” he said, recalling that the decision to keep him aboard was not straightforward, given that Sakai had yet to win a Grade 1 in Japan when the partnership first took shape. That faith has been repaid many times over.
Thirty years on from Cigar putting the Dubai World Cup on the map as one of racing’s truly elite prizes, Saturday’s renewal deserves a champion for the ages. The world is watching. Forever Young knows what to do.
