What a race!!! Charlie Appleby trained Hawkbill was amongst the leaders since the beginning. The William Buick ridden son of Kitten's Joy didn’t even look like he would lose. He strode in the lead and carried it to the finish.
The start of the race would have you left worried for Hawkbill as he was not ready to enter the starting gate where he got his front legs tangled over the side of the stall. It took him some time to calm himself and get ready for the race and ready he was to win it.
“He put it all together,” praised jockey William Buick of Hawkbill. “When he has an uncontested lead, he is a dangerous horse. I thought if he had things his own way, he would be a tough nut to crack. He put in a brilliant performance,” Buick continued. “He’s got some turn of foot.”
“You couldn’t have designed it any better,” Appleby said. “William gave him a tremendous ride, as he always does. It’s all about the horses, His Highness (Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Godolphin) having winners. I’m going home saying the 2018 Dubai World Cup Carnival has been very successful. I always wanted to get the horse’s head in front in another Group 1 race—he’s cemented that after his racing days he’ll be a very successful stallion. Going into it we were hopeful he’d run well and we’ll look at a race in Hong Kong at the end of May. We’ll let the horse decide,” he said.
A surprising finish was for the Sir M Stoute trained and Lanfranco Dettori ridden Poet's Word who came in second. The jockey said, “He was keen and I thought it might be a muddling race beforehand. William (Buick) made the running and I sat second behind him for much of the way and I ideally would like to have gone faster. The first three home were the first three all the way round. He has ran a super race but I knew at the top of the straight when William was three lengths clear that it was all over.”
Cloth Of Stars another Godolphin owned, A Fabre trained colt ridden by Mickael Barzalona came in third. The Jockey said, “He was too keen. He ran a good race but was too keen all of the way.” The trainer said, “Very good run to be third, having been so keen.”
By Apurva Chavan, Racing Writer, apurva.chavan@secretariatsworld.com