Trainer Yoshita Yahagi was pleased with a middle draw for his Dubai World Cup favourite Forever Young, describing the start from gate five as “not a bad position” following the draw ceremony at Meydan on Wednesday.
The four-year-old Real Steel colt arrives at the Meydan showpiece event on the back of victory at the $20 million Saudi Cup in February.
If successful, Forever Young will become the first horse to complete the Saudi-Dubai double, etching the name of the trainer and operation in history. So far, things are looking good for Forever Young.
“We thought [earlier] that the wider we got, the better. I didn't want stall one or two for him, so he gets a fair race, though it's not a big matter anyway,” Yahagi said of the Japanese star.
“He is the best horse I have trained so far. He’s got a sound mind and a great attitude. He should be comfortable with the middle draw, and hopefully all goes well for him on the race night.”
Forever Young won the UAE Derby last year and boasts eight victories from 10 career starts. In the other two races, he finished third in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, both Grade 1s.
Noburu Takagi’s Wilson Tesoro will emerge from stall three in a bid to reverse his Saudi Cup form, alongside Forever Young and Ushba Tesoro (stall four).
Takagi was “happy to avoid a wide draw” for Wilson Tesoro while insisting the usually slow-starting Ushba Tesoro would “run his own race, regardless of the draw”.
Completing the Japanese contingent in the race is Ramjet, who has chased home Forever Young on his last three starts, breaking from stall nine, although trainer Shozo Sasaki feels that won't be any inconvenience.
Bhupat Seemar, last year’s Dubai World Cup winning trainer with Laurel River and jockey Tadhg O'Shea, seemed relaxed with the one and ten gate draws for his two entries Walk Of Stars and Imperial Emperor.
“They're perfect draws,” he said. “Walk of Stars has got a lot of speed, he's got a lot of gate speed. I think in the Godolphin Mile last year he was drawn three. He ran a very good race, he was second.
“We're going to use his speed as his advantage, and one is a good draw for him. And then Imperial Emperor is just a very uncomplicated horse.
“He's drawn 10, but he's won from draw 13 before. He's just a push-button horse, you can just put him wherever you want.”
Seemar is well aware of the formidable Japanese challenge in Dubai, particularly Forever Young.
“He’s probably one of the best horses in the world,” Seemar said. “But he can have a bad day as well. Absolutely, this is horse racing. You've got to be in the race to win it.”
O’Shea had a tough choice, picking between the two Zabeel Stables horses but opted for Imperial Emperor, who improved from finishing second behind Walk Of Stars to clinching the Group 2 Al Maktoum Classic and also earning a direct ticket to the Dubai World Cup.
“He's thrown wide every time he's run on the dirt so I'm not too concerned,” the 12-time UAE champion and Zabeel Stables retained jockey said of his second widest draw in the 11-runner field.
“He's still very unexposed on the dirt so maybe it's nice to give him a little bit of space and hopefully he takes a good jump and takes a good position. The outside throw is not too bad.
“Dubai Millennium won from 11. Yes. And probably one of the other greatest, Laurel River, won from the widest draw 12. So, I'm not too concerned.”
Imperial Emperor, obviously has momentum on his side.
“He’s training well but they are both very closely matched on Round 2 of the Maktoum Challenge. So, fingers crossed for big runs on Saturday night.
“Obviously, it's a hard race with Forever Young. Yes, Forever Young for me is probably one of the best dark horses in the world for what he's achieved already.
“And he's still only four. He's achieved an awful lot in a short space of time. So, he's going to be a tough nut to crack, but we're on home territory, so we'll give it our best shot.”
O’Shea has ridden Walk Of Stars in seven of his eight local starts, winning twice before being unplaced in the Saudi Cup in his last start.
Completing the line-up is American entry Rattle N Roll, bidding to become the first American winner since Country Grammer in 2022, jumping out from stall two.
“The inside draw was good. It’s a long run to the first turn and he can tuck in and find his way from there. In these races you need to save as much ground as possible,” Kenny McPeek, his handler, said.
Il Miracolo is drawn in gate six, Hit Show next to him in seven, Mixto in eight and Katinah widest in 11 of the five American entries.
Players Selected for La Liga Trials
U18 Age Group
Name: Ahmed Salam (Malaga)
Position: Right Wing
Nationality: Jordanian
Name: Yahia Iraqi (Malaga)
Position: Left Wing
Nationality: Morocco
Name: Mohammed Bouherrafa (Almeria)
Position: Centre-Midfield
Nationality: French
Name: Mohammed Rajeh (Cadiz)
Position: Striker
Nationality: Jordanian
U16 Age Group
Name: Mehdi Elkhamlichi (Malaga)
Position: Lead Striker
Nationality: Morocco
Abu%20Dhabi%E2%80%99s%20Racecard
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Brief scores:
Juventus 3
Dybala 6', Bonucci 17', Ronaldo 63'
Frosinone 0
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Scoreline
Syria 1-1 Australia
Syria Al Somah 85'
Australia Kruse 40'
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray
What to watch out for:
Algae, waste coffee grounds and orange peels will be used in the pavilion's walls and gangways
The hulls of three ships will be used for the roof
The hulls will painted to make the largest Italian tricolour in the country’s history
Several pillars more than 20 metres high will support the structure
Roughly 15 tonnes of steel will be used
Kill%20
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INDIA'S%20TOP%20INFLUENCERS
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
More coverage from the Future Forum
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
RESULTS
2pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,000m
Winner: AF Mozhell, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Khalifa Al Neyadi (trainer)
2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Majdi, Szczepan Mazur, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
3pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: AF Athabeh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: AF Eshaar, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi
4pm: Gulf Cup presented by Longines Prestige (PA) Dh150,000 (D) 1,700m
Winner: Al Roba’a Al Khali, Al Moatasem Al Balushi, Younis Al Kalbani
4.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh40,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Apolo Kid, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muahiri
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
LILO & STITCH
Starring: Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Teams
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shanwari, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Seth Rance, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
