Dubai Possibility for Hong Kong Dirt Specialist

The dominant win by Elusive State (All American-Jarada, by Redoute's Choice) on Sunday at Sha Tin has trainer Tony Millard contemplating sending the gelding to either next month's $US20 million Saudi Cup over 1,800m or the $US12 million Dubai World Cup over 2,000m in March, reports scmp.com. "It's just lovely to have a horse like this but also to have a dream and that's what it's about," Millard said. "It's about having a goal and trying to get there and seeing if it comes off. If it doesn't, we'll go to plan two, but definitely plan one now is overseas." The logistics around travel with COVID19 will make the trip a challenge. "One would have liked to have gone to Saudi … that would be the actual race for him," he said. "You never know, the [Jockey] Club said they can move mountains, let's see them do that, because I think Saudi would be the number one choice and Dubai number two. [If we go to Dubai] we'll definitely be going for the World Cup instead of the [Godolphin] Mile, because Joao feels that with him losing his early speed, he reckons that will be the right race for him." Elusive State has won ten of his 42 starts, with his only race outside of Hong Kong being his debut win in New Zealand back in 2016.