Godolphin's First 2016 Carnival Winner Is Steady Pace

Steady Pace, trained by Saeed bin Suroor and ridden by James Doyle, provided Godolphin's first Dubai World Cup Carnival winner of 2016 in the UAE 2,000 Guineas Trial Sponsored By DP World UAE Region at Meydan on Thursday, January 14.

The three-year-old Dark Angel colt broke smartly in the seven-furlong race on dirt and was settled back to third of the eight runners, racing a bit keenly.

Steady Pace occupied the same position turning in, soon went second and ran on to lead from Calder Prince with a half-furlong remaining.

Godolphin's other runner Rouleau (Charlie Appleby/William Buick) was also well away and raced in second. He was passed by Steady Pace in the straight but rallied strongly inside the final furlong and nearly got to the winner close home, just failing by a nose. The winning time was 1m 25.58s.

James Doyle explained that Steady Pace started to pull up and flicked his ears in the final stages after noticing a trackside camera.

Saeed bin Suroor commented: "I like Steady Pace - he was third the time before in a Newmarket Group One.

"He won this race better than the margin suggests. The plan is to run Steady Pace in the UAE 2,000 Guineas (G3, February 11) and then we will see what to do with him.

"I am happy with my horses who are well but they have mostly needed their first races and will improve."

The two Godolphin runners in the UAE 1,000 Guineas Trial Sponsored by DP World UAE Region over seven furlongs on dirt performed creditably on their first outings of the year.

Hard Spun filly Promising Run (Saeed bin Suroor/James Doyle) finished second to Polar River after making the running, while Pure Diamond (Saeed bin Suroor/William Buick) raced in last of the eight runners after being slow into stride but the Street Cry filly progressed to third by the finish.

Saeed bin Suroor nearly had another success when Good Contact, partnered by Oisin Murphy, came with a powerful run from sixth entering the straight in the 10-furlong Minar Al Hamriya Handicap on dirt.

The four-year-old son of Teofilo finished strongly in the final furlong and just failed by a short-head to catch Munaaser, with the trainer also responsible for the third Think Ahead (James Doyle).

It was the turn of another Godolphin trainer, Charlie Appleby, to go close in the last race of the evening, the mile Fujairah Container Terminal Handicap on turf.

Flash Fire, a four-year-old Shamardal colt, went to the front nearly two furlongs from home under Mickael Barzalona and rallied well when the winner Forries Waltz took the lead, going down by a neck.