NEWS
Champion Gio Ponti targeting Dubai World Cup
Posted: Monday, February 01, 2010 5:20 PM
GIO PONTI
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by Mike Curry
With $10-million on the line, it will take more than a couple of Eclipse Awards to scare away the competition for the Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1) on March 27 at Meydan Racecourse.
The connections of champion older male and champion turf male Gio Ponti found out on Sunday that the four-time Grade 1 winner was one of a record 288 entries for the world’s most lucrative race. Trained by Christophe Clement for owner Shane Ryan’s Castleton Lyons, Gio Ponti is the early favorite with British bookmakers for the 2,000-meter (9.94-furlong) race.
“I received an e-mail this morning from my owner, Mr. Shane Ryan, and I will quote him, ‘The Dubai World Cup is like a gold rush; everybody showed up in elimination,” Clement said. “I guess money will bring them out from everywhere.”
The 2010 World Cup will be the first edition held at Meydan, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s vision for the future of racing in Dubai. The multibillion-dollar project features a state-of-the-art racetrack and stabling facilities as well as a trackside hotel. The racecourse features a left-handed, 2,400-meter (11.93-furlong) turf circuit outside of a 1,750-meter (8.70-furlong) Tapeta Footings synthetic track.
Clement said he will follow the races closely on the newly installed Tapeta surface leading up to the World Cup.
“We don’t know much about the Meydan racetrack; no American horses have run on the Meydan racetrack yet,” he said. “I have been following the races since they started running on it, and the times seem to be very slow so far. Some of the grass horses have run very well on it. We’re not exactly sure, but I believe that between now and the World Cup, the racetrack will get faster. I hope it does.”
Gio Ponti won four Grade 1 races on grass last year and closed his season with a game runner-up finish to unbeaten champion Zenyatta in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on Santa Anita Park's synthetic Pro-Ride surface (video).
With more than $3.1-million in career earnings and seven graded stakes victories, the five-year-old Tale of the Cat horse has done more than enough to establish himself as an elite racehorse and secure a future at stud. So when Ryan told his trainer that he planned to keep Gio Ponti in training in 2010, the news generated a ripple of excitement through Clement’s barn.
“Everybody in the barn, everybody in the stable is thrilled,” Clement said. “The horse is doing very well. He went from California at Santa Anita and is at Payson Park [Training Center in South Florida] right now. He will have two more breezes and we will run him the week of February 20 in a prep race, most probably in the stakes at Tampa Bay [Downs].”
Clement said he has two races on February 20 in mind for Gio Ponti’s final World Cup prep race: the $150,000 Tampa Bay Breeders’ Cup Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race at Tampa; and the Canadian Turf Stakes (G3), a one-mile race on the grass at Gulfstream Park.
“I believe the Tampa Bay race, at the moment, seems to the best choice because of the ground, the turf course, and the distance of a mile and a sixteenth,” he said.
While the huge purse and the sparkling new racecourse figure to ensure first-class competition, Clement has every reason to be confident in Gio Ponti’s ability on turf or synthetic surfaces. He said the Breeders’ Cup runner-up finish did not prove anything to him, it just reinforced what the trainer already knew about this talented horse.
“He’s won Grade 1s going a mile to a mile and three eighths. He’s beaten horses from all over,” Clement said. “The bottom line is that he’s just a very good horse. I didn’t think that the Breeders’ Cup race was a better race than his campaign up until then. I think the Breeders’ Cup just confirmed that on turf or artificial surfaces, he’s one of the best horses out there, if not the best.”
Clement declined to speculate what winning the Dubai World Cup would mean to him. He came pretty close to finding out in 2005, when Dynever finished a strong second to Roses in May to earn $1.2-million.
“I had a great time the last time I was over there,” Clement said. “It is great to be able to prepare and be around a horse that is going to be one of the favorites, if not the favorite, for that race. It is extremely exciting.
“If we win, I promise you can call me at three o’clock in the morning and I will share my thoughts on winning the race.”
Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
