Khaleej Times
Invasor looks bright
By Hisham Al Gizouli
23 March 2007
DUBAI — The 2006 Horse of the Year and Dubai World Cup's favourite, Invasor, arrived safely at Dubai International Airport on Wednesday late night and received a warm welcome from a delighted connections at the adjacent Cargo Village.
"He looks very bright, relaxed and comfortable after the long trip from Fort Lauderdale International Airport in the US," said Ali Mohammed Al Muhairi, racing manager of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance and Industry.
"Invasor arrived with his jockey Fernando Jara, his doctor and assistant trainer while trainer Kiaran McLaughlin is scheduled to arrive here on Sunday," he said.
Regarding the chances of the Argentinean-bred champion of the champions to reverse places with his only conqueror Discreet Cat, Al Muhairi said Invasor has good chance to get the job done 'inshallah'.
After winning all his five starts at the age of two years, the five-year-old brilliant son of Candy Stripes from Quendom by Interprete, headed for Dubai where he received his only defeat in the UAE Derby at the hands of his Dubai World Cup's rival Discreet Cat over 1800 metres at Nad Al Sheba dirt track.
Shaikh Hamdan said in reply to a question from Khaleej Times, "Many things have changed since the derby. Now, Invasor is mature and is in his best form."
Thereafter, Invasor was sent to the US to rewrite the history of racing in the new world.
On 19/5/2006, he won the Pimlico Special Handicap (Gr-1), then the Suburban Handicap (Gr-1), followed by the Whitney Handicap (Gr-1) before becoming the first Arab-owned horse to claim the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (Gr-1) at Churchill Downs on 4/11/2006 and finally he won the Donn Handicap (Gr-1) at Gulfstream Park earlier this month.
Speaking about the chances of the other horses of Shaikh Hamdan in the supporting races of the $21,250,000 world's richest race, Al Muhairi said they were forced to pull out Tawqeet from the $5m Shema Classic due to an unfortunate foot injury during training.
"After he ran a big race behind Poperii in Australia, Tawqeet sustained a foot injury that forced an early layoff. Till now, we are saddling Madjani to defend his Dubai Kahayla Classic (Gr-1) for Purebred Arabians sponsored by Emaar and Gharir to represent the stables in the Godolphine Mile (Gr-2), along with Invasor in the $6m Dubai World Cup," he said.
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