Japan’s dirt titan, Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) champ and Champion Older Horse in the U.S. FOREVER YOUNG will break from stall 6 under Ryusei Sakai in a field of nine for Saturday’s $12m Dubai World Cup sponsored by Emirates.
Trainer Yoshito Yahagi drew the gate number during the post-position ceremony at Meydan racecourse on Wednesday morning, as he prepares Forever Young for his bid to improve on last year’s third-placed effort.
Defending champion Hit Show is drawn alongside Forever Young in gate 5, while Magnitude and Walk Of Stars, two of the potential pace angles in the race
Quotes from the connections in draw order:
1 Magnitude
Scott Blasi, assistant trainer: “It’s a short field and I think [gate] 1 of 9, with our pace, gives us a lot of options. I thionk he likes to be forwardly placed and we’ve won a lot of big races from the one hole.”
2 Meydaan
Simon Crisford, joint-trainer: “I think we would have preferred to be a little bit further out. But we don’t really want him to get shuffled back. The pace will be more intense in this race than on Super Saturday. But happy enough. “
3 Walk Of Stars
Bhupat Seemar, trainer: “It’s a pertfect draw. He’s got a lot of speed and from stall three he can dominate and display his natural speed.”
4 Heart Of Honor
Jamie Osborne, trainer: “Walk Of Stars is inside us; he’ll go fast, we won’t! I was thinking beforehand I’d like to be a bit wider but on balanace I think it’s okay. I wouldn’t want to be one or two, trapped down the rail. But we might well end up on the rail because of the pace inside us.”
5 Hit Show
Florent Geroux, jockey: “It doesn’t matter for him really.”
6 Forever Young
Yoshito Yahagi, trainer: “I wanted middle to outer, so I’m pleased.”
7 Imperial Emperor
Bhupat Seemar, trainer: “It’s perfect in seven. Forever Young is on the inside of him and he is going to be the favourite. He’s the right horse to follow. Tadhg can just jump and follow him, hopefully all the way to the line, and hopefully we can be a head or a length in front.”
8 Tap Leader
Doug Watson, trainer: “We wanted to be on the outside. A couple of times he got in the middle of it and we had to check him a couple of times in his last race. Form stall eight he should be able to keep his momentum up for the entire race.”
9 Tumbarumba
Hamad Al Jehani, trainer: “Very happy. It’s not a big field with only nine horses. Stall 9 gives us options, we can choose the best place for our horse during the race. Hopefully it will be useful.”
The draw for the other four Group 1s on the $30.5m card also took place on Wednesday morning.
The 2025 World’s Best Racehorse Calandagan will break from stall 2 in the Longines Dubai Sheema Classic, though post position is unlikely to play a major role in a field of six.
Dual Group 1-winner Ombudsman drew gate 7 in the $5m Dubai Turf sponsored by DP World, while 2024 winner Facteur Cheval is next door in stall 6.
Breeders’ Cup Sprint hero Bentornato drew well in gate 2 for the $2m Dubai Golden Shaheen sponsored by Nakheel, while Lazzat is housed in stall 7 – two away from his Riyadh conqueror Reef Runner in 5 – for the $2m Al Quoz Sprint sponsored by Azizi Developments.
GIAVELLOTTO is a high-class performer by anyone’s standards. It’s somewhat bizarre, then, to learn that the Marco Botti-trained seven-year-old goes by the nickname ‘chicken.’ Why?
No-one, it seems, can remember. “It’s just a name that Andrew [Morris, Head Lad] gave him,” says Lucie Botti, but Morris says, “he’s always been called that, ever since he was a youngster.”
The origins of the chicken nickname may have to remain a mystery, but it’s testament to Giavellotto’s durability that he makes his fourth World Cup night start on Saturday. First up came two goes at the G2 Gold Cup, finishing ninth and fifth, in 2023 and 2024, before a revelatory drop in trip and a fifth in the G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic last year. Prior to that was his career highlight, a superb win in the 2024 G1 Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin. This Saturday he returns to the Sheema Classic.
For Morris, who has ridden Giavellotto since he was three, that was the pinnacle of his career so far.
“We are very proud of him – he’s just been a superstar,” he says. “The highlight was when he won the Hong Kong Vase and when he was second last year. He tried but just didn’t quite get there – it would have been a fairytale if he had.
“He’s been unlucky too, especially here. In the Gold Cup in 2024 his rein came undone, and he still wasn’t beaten very far. Then last year Oisin [Murphy, jockey] said he was too far back, but he still ran to a high level of form.”
Morris and Giavellotto have a seamless partnership, but the rider says he’s not as easy a ride as he appears.
“Now and again he has a bit of a wobble but he’s basically very straightforward if you leave him alone. He’s his own man.
“As he’s got older he’s got easier but as a youngster he was a handful. He travels so well because he likes the one-to-one attention.
“He’s soft. He thinks he’s Mr Tough Guy but really he likes the attention. He loves people.”
Another omnipresent on Giavellotto’s many travels is Lucie Botti, who makes no attempt to hide her love for the son of Mastercraftsman.
“Giavellotto has been a very special horse for us,” she says. “To come back to Dubai for the fourth time, to travel internationally and perform at this level year after year – and now at seven – says everything about his class, his soundness, and his attitude.”
More News
