All eyes on Frankie Dettori’s swansong at the World Cup

It will be an emotional evening if Frankie Dettori wins the Dubai World Cup this weekend. It would be his fifth, record-setting victory in the iconic race at Meydan in the desert – and a fitting swansong in his final year in the saddle before retirement.

The ebullient, charismatic Italian-Brit has done much to popularise racing and keep it in the news spotlight over decades, so there won’t be many fans not wishing him well.

They’ll also be cheering him on as his mount, Country Grammar, is a 33-10 joint favourite.

Dettori and Country Grammar will be trying to repeat their triumph of last year and become only the second combo to win the Cup two years running since its inauguration in 1996 – following Thunder Snow and Christophe Soumillon in 2018 and 2019.

Star of the show

Dettori has seven rides on the card, most of them with lively chances, so he could be the star of the show even if he can’t pull off the big one for famous American trainer Bob Baffert. He has two other rides for Baffert and two for John and Thady Gosden, his principal employers in the UK.

There are a few oddities at this year’s meeting that are worth noting.

It will be the first time that Godolphin, the racing stable of Dubai’s ruling sheikhs, does not have a runner in the main race. The royal blue silks have been carried to victory nine times in 27 years but the formidable worldwide operation wasn’t able to come up with a suitable challenger this time around.

What does jump out at anyone scanning the World Cup field is a full-on Japanese assault on the R12-million purse, with more than half the field of 15 being saddled by trainers from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Capacity crowd

Also interesting is that it will be the first time World Cup Night will be held in the Islamic country during the holy month of Ramadan.

The time to break fast comes after the sixth race – the $2-million Group 1 Golden Shaheen, a 1200m sprint on the dirt surface.

A capacity crowd of 80,000 people is expected.

More than a dozen countries are represented in the eight races on the card, vying for the total $30.5-million prize money on offer.

Sadly, South Africa – which did much to boost the internationalism of the event in its formative years, notably in the shape of ace Joburg trainer Mike de Kock – will be absent due to the crippling EU export ban on our horses.

But the World Cup meeting has always been very popular with local racing fans and will surely be eagerly followed on Racing 240 on DStv for 2.05pm on Saturday.