Stay Foolish capped a remarkable 35 minutes for Japanese trainer Yoshito Yahagi by completing a double on the Meydan card on World Cup Saturday when getting up in the dying strides to deny the strongly fancied Manobo in the $1 million Gr2 Dubai Gold Cup.
After a strong pace and the early drama of Emperor Of The Sun running out on the approach to the back straight, the race soon became about the closers.
It looked for all the world as though the Charlie Appleby-trained Manobo would seal a second victory in the race for his trainer when picking up the running at the two-furlong marker, but Stay Foolish continued to box on at the rail under Christophe Lemaire.
Stay Foolish finishes powerfully to beat Manobo
And the Far East raider would not be denied, snatching victory at the winning line to seal a first victory in the race for Japan – and the second winner of the evening for the nation.
Completing the places was the local runner Al Madhar for the Musabbeh Al Mheiri team.
Yahagi said: “After Saudi he enjoyed the atmosphere in Dubai, he was excellent, very comfortable here. He loves Dubai I think.
“I did not give any orders to the jockey. Christophe Lemaire knows what to do. I am not sure what we do with him next. We will go back to Japan but my dream would be to go to Royal Ascot for the Gold Cup but I would need to speak with the owner first.”
Christophe Lemaire, winning jockey, said: “He didn’t jump out as fast as he did in Saudi Arabia but he travelled well. I was not worried about finding a gap in the straight because the horse in front of me was travelling well.
“When I saw Manobo come alongside me powerfully, I thought we were done. Stay Foolish doesn’t have a big turn of foot but when the Godolphin horse struggled close to the finish my horse got a lot of confidence and moved forward again. Obviously Manobo was the one to beat and he also had a 2kg advantage.”
On his exceptional run of success in the Middle East, he added: “I won’t say I am used to it because every race is important and that is the past. You have to look forward to the future and I am focused on my next race.”
Comments from some of the others:
4th – Alignak, jockey Saffie Osborne said: “I got the worst trip around possible. They went so slow. From stall two I just kept getting locked up. He’s run seriously well to finish where he has and if they’d gone any sort of gallop I think it would have been closer.”
5th – Passion And Glory, jockey Patrick Cosgrave said: “He’s run well.”
6th – Volcanic Sky, jockey Louis Steward said: “He ran a lovely race. He had a lovely, soft lead around there and no one really hassled him. He picked up good in the straight, just lacked a bit of class at the end.”
7th – Veloce Oro, jockey Mirco Demuro said: “He ran well, I thought that he could win but in the end, he just didn’t have the stamina to stay.”
8th – Castlebar, jockey Bernardo Pinheiro said: “Didn’t stay.”
9th – Rodrigo Diaz, jockey Jamie Spencer said: “Very slow pace, I had a difficult draw and I tried to overcome it at the start but the pace went out of the race at the winning post and it was going to be difficult after that.”
10th – East Asia, jockey Richard Mullen said: “He travelled nicely and he was nice and relaxed. It was a messy race, we went hard early and then they slackened off the back. A few were making moves and they just got into a rhythm where he wasn’t too comfortable, he was just getting a bit toey with me. I just felt the last few stages, a mile and six probably sees him out and I think he’s got enough pace even for a mile and a half now.”
11th – Mirinaque, jockey Francisco Leandro Goncalves said: “No good.”
12th – Baron Samedi, jockey James Doyle said: “I ended up behind Manobo and that was the worst place to be, just couldn’t build at all.”
