Al Quoz Sprint adds flavour to showpiece

Dubai Racing Club has announced the programme for the US$26.25 million World Cup meeting on March 27, which will see a new turf sprint event run on the new Meydan track. The meeting will go to eight races, with the existing sprint, the Golden Shaheen, to be run on the new Tapeta all-weather track, but the Group Three Al Quoz Sprint over a straight 1,200m on the turf track has been added to the card. The US$1 million event will thus fall five weeks after the Chairman's Sprint Prize at Sha Tin and with a seven-week gap to the KrisFlyer Sprint at Singapore's Kranji racecourse on May 16. It also announced changes to key distances on the Meydan course, which might have significance for connections of Good Ba Ba. The US$5 million Dubai Duty Free, formerly at 1,777m, will now be run at 1,800m but over a similar course as the same distance at Sha Tin, only left handed, with a run down the back of the course and around one turn.