Gold Cup Winners Eye Dubai Next Spring
Setting Up Next Spring's Dubai Targets
Ascot's Gr.1 Gold Cup, worth US$532,000 (£396,970) to the winner, has become one of the clearest staging posts on the road to Meydan, with several of the 11 runners already carrying Dubai form into the contest or building a season around a return there next spring. Richard Austen feels conditions suit Caballo De Mar, with Scandinavia his pick for second, while noting that Trawlerman's participation had been in some doubt until recently. The link to the Gulf season runs deeper than that verdict alone, since the region's racing calendar lists this very contest as a principal pipeline sending European stayers toward the US$1 million Dubai Gold Cup each spring, alongside fellow waypoints such as the Goodwood Cup later this summer and the Yorkshire Cup that two of today's runners have already used to launch their own campaigns. This year's renewal carries more Meydan history than most.
George Scott's stable flagbearer makes that case especially well. Drawn 11, the gelding ran in the Dubai Gold Cup itself back in March, finishing a half length second to Fairy Glen on his seasonal return. A short head defeat by Sweet William in the Sagaro Stakes at Ascot followed, before a trip across the Channel produced another Group One success at Longchamp last month, beating fellow Gold Cup runner Al Riffa among others and building on the Prix du Cadran he won at the same track the previous October. Scott has spoken of his stayer's love of regular racing, saying "I can't wait to get him over two and a half miles again." Al Riffa, trained by Joseph O'Brien and drawn 8, was among the rivals beaten in that Longchamp race and brings broadly similar credentials into a deeper test of stamina.
Stayers Already Eyeing Return To Dubai
Trawlerman, breaking from stall 2 for John & Thady Gosden, returns from 243 days off to defend the title he won by 7 lengths last year, a defence that looked in real jeopardy this spring before he was passed fit only in the past few days. Success would make him the first repeat winner since Stradivarius completed a hat trick in 2020, and continues a rivalry that began in 2024 when he finished second to the now retired Kyprios.
The Newmarket stable's usual plan sends him to Meydan for the Dubai Gold Cup ahead of his Royal Ascot campaign, a trip skipped this year purely to protect his fitness for the longer term, leaving him without his customary prep run. Dubai Future, the same connections' 10YO veteran trained by Saeed bin Suroor and drawn 5, completed the loop the other way, winning last year's Dubai Gold Cup before chasing Trawlerman home in third in this very race, and he arrives fresh from beating stable companion Sweet William by a neck in the Henry II Stakes at Sandown last month. Sweet William, also for the Gosden stable and drawn 9, won the Sagaro Stakes on his own reappearance before that defeat and gets another chance to turn the placings around.
Scandinavia, drawn 3 for Aidan O'Brien and unbeaten in his last five starts, arrives without a prep run this season, his trainer banking on the natural class that delivered the Goodwood Cup and the St Leger last year to carry him through two and a half miles for the first time. Rahiebb, trained by Roger Varian and drawn 10, chased Scandinavia home in that same St Leger before opening this season with victory in the Yorkshire Cup at the expense of fellow Gold Cup runner Al Nayyir, and represents the most progressive of the home challengers.
Al Nayyir, trained by Tom Clover and drawn 1, gets another chance to settle that score, while Carmers, for French handler P Twomey and drawn 4, Furthur, trained by Andrew Balding and drawn 6, and Miss Alpilles, trained by Ed Walker and drawn 7, round out a typically international Gold Cup field. Good to firm going under sunny skies should suit out and out stayers over the marathon trip, and whoever lands the spoils can expect an invitation to follow the well worn route to Meydan when the Dubai World Cup Carnival gets under way again next winter, a path that already draws leading stayers from as far afield as Japan each season. For followers of the sport across the Gulf, this is the moment that next year's Carnival names first announce themselves, with the winner of this marathon already a leading candidate for a starting stall in the Dubai Gold Cup come March, and whichever horse finishes second not far behind on the same trail.