Asian Mile Challenge

Gladiatorus cut loose with the most dazzling performance the series has seen, while Niconero and Vodka captured second successive editions of the Futurity Stakes and Yasuda Kinen. In the process, the latter gained official recognition as the most successful female ever to grace Japanese racing.

These events, added to Sight Winner’s slightly surprising superiority in the Champions Mile, encapsulated the 2009 Asian Mile Challenge spanning four Group One races in Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Japan.

Looking ahead to 2010, the move to the spectacular and futuristic brand new Meydan Racecourse in Dubai is destined to provide one of the AMC’s next highlights all by itself at a time when it will still offer the richest collective prize-money in the sport.

A brief retrospective of the 2009 campaign is in order and Niconero is the best place to begin. Niconero has now retired but David Hayes’ warhorse will be remembered as one of the finest proponents of the AMC after appearances in seven legs of the Challenge for two wins in the Futurity Stakes in Melbourne.   

Niconero also performed with distinction to run fourth in a fiercely contested Dubai Duty Free; after all, how many races can boast ten individual Group One winners? None of the major names were quite at their best but surely nothing could have lived with Gladiatorus, who turned the world’s joint-richest turf event at US$5m into a procession.

Gladiatorus, trained by Mohammed bin Shafya, was positively ridden by Ahmed Ajtebi to make all and record a victory in excess of three lengths. The extravagance of the win was rewarded with a then world highest ranking of 127 – the loftiest ever attained during a leg of the Asian Mile Challenge.

Onward the carnival rolled to Hong Kong where the local horses had dominated since the Champions Mile became a leg of the AMC in 2005. Again a home victory eventuated, but not in the guise that most had anticipated.