Mshawish Impressive in Final Drill for Dubai
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Kenny Martin
Mshawish wins the 2016 Donn Handicap.
Al Shaqab Racing's Mshawish served noticed March 11 that he should not be forgotten in the conversation leading up to the March 26 Dubai World Cup (UAE-I), although California Chrome and Frosted may be well-deserved headliners.
The Donn Handicap (gr. I) winner—who has made an excellent transition to racing on dirt after spending most of his career on turf—wowed his connections with a powerful breeze at Palm Beach Downs in his final stateside move for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Mshawish was officially timed in :58.87 for a five-furlong move by clockers, and Al Shaqab Racing manager Bradley Weisbord credited him with a seven-furlong gallop out in 1:24 4/5.
"This was the big piece of work," Weisbord said. "We weren't going to lead him over to Dubai short. On a scale of one to 10, he's doing 200. If he gets to the race like he is today, he's going to run big."
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Mshawish, a 6-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro , has run in Dubai twice before. He took the 2014 Zabeel Mile Sponsored by Al Naboodah MEP & Engineering Group (UAE-IIT) and finished third last year in the Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World (UAE-IT). He ships from Florida to the United Arab Emirates March 13 for a try over the Meydan dirt, and will go through Atlanta and Germany before arriving in Dubai.
"California Chrome and Frosted are two extremely nice horses that virtually show up every time," Weisbord said. "They have a definite home-field advantage and it was smart of their connections to ship them over early and get them acclimated, and both have won a serious race on the track where the World Cup will be held.
"We didn't have that liberty, because we won the Donn in early February and we felt going into the Donn that it would be a rush to run there and then ship to Dubai to prep in Dubai. And if we weren't going to prep in a race, we didn't feel the need to be there early. The horse has been there before, he won the Zabeel Mile, and last year he ran third in the Dubai Turf off the same shipping schedule."
Last year Mshawish missed three days of training the week prior to the Dubai Turf with a serious foot bruise.
"He had a major issue the week of the race and still ran really well in Dubai, and with all those things considered, it gave us comfort to do all our training at Palm Beach Downs, where he has his own groom and our own staff, and then ship over there ready for battle," Weisbord said.
The well-traveled Mshawish was bred in Kentucky but began his career racing in France and England—even with a jaunt to Hong Kong thrown in right before his arrival in the U.S. for a 2014 campaign with Pletcher. He won the Ft. Lauderdale Stakes (gr. IIT) and the Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (gr. IT) in 2015, and at the end of that year, after running fourth in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT), was switched to dirt by his connections.
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The Donn Handicap victory boosted his stud value, but Mshawish should have a full campaign this year before heading off to the Taylor Made Stallions breeding shed for the 2017 season.
"He's going to be a stallion standing in Kentucky at the conclusion of his career, but barring unforeseen issues, the main goal for him this year is the Breeders' Cup Classic," Weisbord said.