Belmont-Bound Mubtaahij Breezes at Churchill
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Mubtaahij, eighth in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), put in his final work over the Churchill Downs main track the morning of May 10 before he ships to Belmont Park May 12.
The son of Dubawi, a hopeful for the June 6 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), breezed a half-mile in :49 2/5, the 11th fastest time of 39 at the moves distance, in his first workout since the May 2 Kentucky Derby, his U.S. debut.
Trevor Brown, assistant to Mubtaahij's trainer Mike de Kock, said that he was pleased with the colt's work over the track.
"This was his first piece of work since he ran, so we're still on target for Belmont," Brown said. "I was pretty satisfied with the work."
Brown went on to discuss the colt's performance in the Kentucky Derby, stating that Mubtaahij was a little closer to the rail and farther back than he would have preferred. He said one could expect him to be much more forwardly-placed in the Belmont Stakes.
"We'll have to be (closer)," Brown said. "(The Belmont) has a shorter home stretch and we're going to have to be closer and sharper.
"American horses are a lot sharper out of the stalls in the first two furlongs than we are. We'll have to sharpen up a bit. I don't know if he handled the run on the rail. I would have liked for him to be a little more out."
Mubtaahij, winner of the U.A.E. Derby (UAE-II) for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum, will look to become the first foreign-bred and -based horse to win the Belmont Stakes in 25 years. Go and Go, bred and based in Ireland, was the most-recent foreign horse to win the third jewel of the Triple Crown, which he won for trainer Dermot Weld in 1990.