Trainer Charlie Appleby has confirmed that 2019 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) winner Old Persian (right) will not have another prep before the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita Park in California, USA. The son of Dubawi exits a one-sided victory in the Northern Dancer (G1) at Canada’s Woodbine.
“(Old Persian will go) straight there,” said 2019’s champion Dubai World Cup Carnival trainer.
Only two winners of the $6 million Sheema Classic have attempted the Breeders’ Cup Turf double in the same year and both failed to hit the board, Fantastic Light (2000, though he would win the Turf the next year) and Sulamani (2003).
He also attested that two-time 2019 DWC Carnival winner Ispolini, second in the Group 2 $1.5 million Dubai Gold Cup sponsored by Al Tayer Motors to Cross Counter in March, will follow said yard-mate to Australia to compete in the prestigious Melbourne Cup (G1) on Nov. 5. Last year, Cross Counter won the rich 3200m handicap in deep-closing fashion.
Ispolini exits a workmanlike victory in the Deutsches St Leger (G3) in Germany. The win was his second Group 3 of the year, following the Nad Al Sheba Trophy in February, which was a month prior to the Dubai Gold Cup. Between the Dubai Gold Cup and German St Leger, he was a respectable fourth in the G2 Yorkshire Cup in May.
“He was second to Cross Counter in Dubai earlier in the year and ran well behind Stradivarius in the Yorkshire Cup,” Appleby said earlier this week. “He got a bit tired the other day, which he was entitled to, and hopefully that will leave him spot-on for Australia.”
