COUNTING DOWN TO 25 – MONTEROSSO WINS THE SEVENTEENTH RUNNING OF THE DUBAI WORLD CUP IN 2012

The Dubai World Cup meeting celebrates its historic 25th anniversary on March 27, with six Group 1 races and three Group 2s, including one of the world’s premier races, the $12 million Dubai World Cup, sponsored by Emirates Airline.

Over the next few weeks, we will pay tribute to each of the previous Dubai World Cup winners. Today, we rewind to 2012 when Monterosso won the Dubai World Cup under 20-year-old Mickael Barzalona for Godolphin trainer Mahmoud Al Zarooni.

WATCH MONTEROSSO WIN THE 2012 DUBAI WORLD CUP

With the era that horse racing finds itself in now, the sport has grown from a domestic product to a truly international one. With the continual rise of international races around the world it is now possible to compare horses from one side of the world to the other, to a degree far greater than what it would have been, say, 20 years ago.

Monterosso joined Godolphin and ran well in just two starts for them in 2011, winning the Group 2 Dubai City of Gold before being brought back in trip and finishing an excellent third in Victoire Pisa’s Dubai World Cup. The 2012 Dubai World Cup was the aim and the horse didn’t run for the remainder of 2011, not appearing until Super Saturday, like in 2011, and finishing fourth behind stablemate Capponi in the newly elevated Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3. It was a run that was always going to bring him on a great deal and he proved that, reversing the result of the Maktoum Challenge with a three length success. It was a quality performance from Monterosso, the race having a pre-race average rating of 119, equal to that of 2011, making these two renewals the strongest in the history of the Dubai World Cup.

His time of 2.02.67 was also the fastest of the three runnings of the Dubai World Cup since the shift to Meydan. Nine of the 13 runners were Group 1 winners while So You Think, Game On Dude and Royal Delta were to go on an achieve further Group 1 success subsequent to their performances here. Monterosso joined Well Armed and Gloria de Campeao as horses that had run in previous Dubai World Cups before winning one; Well Armed third to Curlin in 2008 before winning in 2009 and Gloria de Campeao 8th to Curlin and second to Well Armed before winning in 2010. Monterosso had been a very good third behind Victoire Pisa in the2011 Dubai World Cup before winning the title with a flourish under twenty–year-old Mickael Barzalona in 2012.