A full field of 16 3-year-olds were signed on to compete for a possible 170 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby in the $1 million UAE Derby (G2) at Meydan Racecourse.
The 1 3/16-mile UAE Derby will be run on the undercard of the $12 million Dubai World Cup (GI). The action from Dubai begins early Saturday at 7:45 a.m. (all times Eastern) and horses in the UAE Derby will head to post in Race 5 at 10:10 a.m.
There are 12 horses currently eligible to garner points in the UAE Derby field. Three of the ineligible horses were bred in the Southern Hemisphere – therefore, they are considered 4-year-olds – and the other, likely favorite Pinehurst, is campaigned by Bob Baffert who is suspended by Churchill Downs Incorporated from competing in this year's Kentucky Derby.
Aside from Pinehurst, there are two other U.S.-based horses in the race – WC Racing, Aldabaugh, Wonderland and Goldstein's Get Back Goldie and Grandview Stable and Don Alberto Stable's Gilded Age.
Here is the complete field in order of program numbers (with jockey and trainer):
- Irwin (ARG) (Francisco Goncalves, Antonio Cintra);
- Kiefer (BRZ) (Hector Lazo, Ricardo Colombo);
- Quality Boone (ARG) (Vagner Leal, Cintra);
- Azure Coast (Antonio Fresu, Pavel Vashchenko);
- Bendoog (Tadhg O'Shea, Bhupat Seemar);
- Combustion (JPN); William Buick, Keizo Ito);
- Crown Pride (JPN) (Damian Lane, Koichi Shintani);
- Get Back Goodlie (Irad Ortiz Jr., Doug O'Neill);
- Gilded Age (Luis Saez, Bill Mott);
- Island Falcon (IRE) (Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor);
- Pinehurst (Flavien Prat, Baffert);
- Reiwa Homare (JPN) (Christophe Lemaire, Daisuke Takayanagi);
- Sekifu (Cristian Demuro, Koshiro Take);
- Summer Is Tomorrow (Mickael Barzalona, Seemar);
- Withering (Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass); and
- Arabian Gazelles (Richard Mullen, Seemar)
Only Crown Pride, Island Falcon, Pinehurst, Reiwa Homare and Sekifu were nominated to the Triple Crown. All other eligible 3-year-olds can pay a late $6,000 nominate fee that is due Monday.
The UAE Derby will be shown on “America's Day at the Races” on Fox Sports 2 and TVG. Fans are invited to bet on www.TwinSpires.com, the official wagering provider of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs Incorporated.
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