Thunder Snow overcame a huge amount of difficulty to become the first horse in history to land consecutive wins in the US$12 million Gr1 Dubai World Cup sponsored by Emirates Airline.
Christophe Soumillon was in the saddle as 12 months ago and the victory capped a superb evening for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the Godolphin team who scooped four of the eight thoroughbred races.
Christophe Soumillon celebrates
Thunder Snow was again drawn wide in the 2000m feature and soon adopted a prominent position, but he had to find extraordinary reserves in the run to the line to overhaul Gronkowski by a nose. The latter had chased the pace with North America, who weakened into the field, with American challenger Gunnevera coming through late to be beaten two and three-quarter lengths into third.
The 5-year-old defied the widest stall bar one to score and was providing trainer Saeed bin Suroor with a remarkable ninth win in the Dubai World Cup in a winning time of 2 minutes 3.87 seconds.
Who said what:
Saeed bin Suroor, Trainer, THUNDER SNOW (1st)—“He is a such a brave horse. I wasn’t sure if he had won, but we had the best jockey in the world on board and he knows him so well. He has won the UAE Derby and now the Dubai World Cup twice on him from wide draws and they are a great team. I think this is my 191st Group 1 winner but it ranks very highly, probably along with Dubai Millennium in 2000 when he won this race. As for Thunder Snow, I will have to speak with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, but I would like if he could run in America again. Maybe in New York, in Saratoga with the final plan being the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.”
Christophe Soumillon, Jockey, THUNDER SNOW (1st)—“Last year I won by five,six, even more lengths, and today Thunder had to fight hard. I really want to say a big thank you to Saeed bin Suroor, and also to HH Sheikh Mohammed, just before the race they said to me in the paddock you should have so much confidence and do everything right. Thanks to Thunder Snow, because without him I would not be able to do such things.
“It was very hard, I was more looking like a Cheltenham jump jockey in the end than an American style jockey but you need to get him going and sometimes you need to do something different. The thing is, I promised to Saeed that I will just have the trophy and he will have the money so I’ll have to come back next year!”
Amer Abdulaziz, owner, Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Gronkowski (2nd) —“He’s run a great race, I can’t believe he was so close. When you come that far and you get beaten by such a narrow margin, it is so frustrating, but this is also a victory for us. In the end, we were beaten by a better horse but our horse is a great horse. We knew that he was going well, we tried to keep it hush-hush but he’s been working so well at home. Salem has done a tremendous job with him, the best of any trainer who has had him so far. When he came here, he had a lot of issues and we had to build him up from scratch. We had to clear his mind and he’s done it. I can guarantee you this horse will be back here next year – and hopefully, he can go one better.”
Oisin Murphy, Jockey, GRONKOWSKI (2nd)—“I thought it was a very brave effort. We were nearly good enough, just not quite.
“Nobody wants to finish second, but what a brave effort. I was very privileged to ride the horse for Phoenix Thoroughbreds. Salem bin Ghadayer did a terrific job conditioning the horse for this race. This was his target since he left America, we hit the cross bar but he tried hard.
“I spent ten minutes warming him up and I gave him a dig out. I just thought the fancied horses would be ridden prominently and why give them a head start. It nearly worked out.
I knew I was beaten. He’s a much bigger horse than Thunder Snow but Christophe’s body was in front of mine.”
The son of Helmet has now won eight of his 23 career starts with a prize money total of US$16,011,850.
