Annaf misses Dubai date due to travel setback

Annaf will miss out on the chance to supplement his recent Saudi Arabian success on Dubai World Cup Night having met with a setback in transit.

Mick Appleby’s five-year-old enjoyed a fine 2023 season and having signed off with big wins at both Doncaster and Ascot, he has picked up from where he left off this term, going close in the Kachy Stakes before striking gold in the $2million Saudi National Bank 1351 Turf Sprint in Riyadh last month.

The son of Muhaarar was in line to seek an international double in Meydan’s Al Quoz Sprint on Saturday, but having picked up a respiratory illness on the flight over to Dubai, will now return to Appleby’s Oakham base to be prepared for a domestic campaign centred around a trip to Royal Ascot.

Appleby said: “He got taken ill on the flight over, but it is not life threatening or anything and he’s hopefully going to be fine, it’s just prevented him from running.

“It’s a shame but it’s a risk you take when they are flying a fair bit. He came home after Saudi and was heading back out so maybe it was just a bit too much for him.

“He should be fine and the vets out in Dubai in the hospital are happy with him – he should be fine to come back home when the other one (Roberto Escobarr) does.

“We’ll probably get him ready for Ascot now, that will probably be the main aim.”

The Royal meeting could also feature on the agenda for Appleby’s leading light Big Evs who is being readied for his three-year-old season.

The son of Blue Point excelled as a juvenile, winning top-quality two-year-old races at home before giving his team a day to remember when winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.

His handler is keen to keep his high-class speedster to five furlongs for the early part of the season, which would see ideas of the Commonwealth Cup put on the backburner for now. However, he does concede six-furlong contests will enter the equation at some stage.

Appleby continued: “He’s great and has wintered really well. He’s not far off being ready to run, we just need to decide where we are going to run.

“The obvious race (to target) would have been the Commonwealth Cup, but that is six furlongs and we don’t really want to try him over six first time back, so we’re not really sure where we will start back. The weather is not helping and it’s raining again here now.

“I think in the early season we will definitely be sticking to five furlongs. We’re obviously going to have to try him at six at some point and the way he won at Goodwood on that heavy ground, you would say he would stay the six.”