Four winners for Godolphin tonight and nearly a fifth

Gold Star provided Godolphin with a fourth winner of the night in the 12-furlong handicap on turf which ended the fourth Dubai World Cup Carnival programme at Meydan, UAE, on Thursday, 1 February.

The four-year-old Nathaniel colt, trained by Saeed bin Suroor and beaten a nose in a similar course and distance race on 11 January, was held up in 10th by Christophe Soumillon.

Gold Star still had one rival behind him as the 11 runners entered the home straight and encountered trouble in running with a furlong and a half remaining before quickening up strongly on the outside to overhaul fellow Godolphin challenger Walton Street (Charlie Appleby/William Buick) by a short head in a bunched finish with less than three quarters of a lengths between the first five home.

The two other Godolphin runners, Eynhallow (Charlie Appleby/Mickael Barzalona) and Huge Future (Saeed bin Suroor/Gerald Mosse) were fourth and fifth.

Saeed bin Suroor, saddling his second winner after Benbatl impressed earlier, commented: “The horses are running well.

“Gold Star came from nearly last to first and is improving and doing well.”

Godolphin nearly had a fifth success as Steady Pace (Saeed bin Suroor/Christophe Soumillon) was only beaten a nose in the six-furlong handicap on turf.

His trainer remarked: “Everyone thought Steady Pace had won, but the photo-finish unfortunately showed he just failed.”

Regarding Dream Castle, who was third in the G2 Al Fahidi Fort over seven furlongs on turf, Saeed bin Suroor said: “Dream Castle has improved from his first run of the year and I hope to find another seven-furlong race for him.”