De Kock won`t race on the dirt,end of the Dubai..

dream?

www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd


TRAINER Mike de Kock, who has proved the biggest challenger to the Maktoum family and their associates at the Dubai World Cup Carnival over the past decade, has stated he is unlikely to have any more runners on Meydan's new dirt surface with his horses not suited by the strong pace bias and composition of the track.

De Kock is the leading international trainer at the carnival having saddled over 130 winners in the last ten year including the likes of Asiatic Boy, Archipenko, Front House, Musir, Soft Falling Rain and Vercingetorix.

However, after the first carnival meeting of the year on Thursday, the South African trainer believes the surface is more equivalent to a sand track at the moment and suited to just one member of his near 50-strong squad.

Having watched seven of his runners perform poorly on the main track at Meydan, De Kock said: "I'm not worried at all [about the horses]. We can be certain that there is a track bias so now we know exactly where we stand. You can draw lines through all the poor sand runs.

"We will revise our initial carnival strategies without delay. Unless there are absolutely no other options we won't have another entry on dirt this season. To win on this track you need runners with good gate speed that can jump and lead or sit up second or third. Otherwise you may as well stay at home."

De Kock came closest to a winner on the opening card when Mushreq finished second in the Listed Singspiel Stakes on turf and the trainer expects to have multiple runners in grass events for the remaining ten weeks of the carnival.

He said: "Our contenders just couldn't match their better suited rivals for early speed. The kickback from just behind the front rank is bad, the slower horses get it in the face and sometimes it's so severe that they battle to breathe.

"The only proven sand racer in our string this season is Pylon. I'm not even going to consider giving any of our other South African arrivals a try on the surface. We may end up with several of our runners in the same events on the turf track, but we'll exercise our available options to the best benefit."

Writing on his website, De Kock added that he expects the track to get better as it beds in, this being the first season dirt racing has taken place on dirt after it replaced the Tapeta surface.

He said: "The track surface is actually very good, it's kind to horses working hard in training. But we're badly in need of a good rain shower here.

"It's a young track and still a bit loose. That's why there's so much kickback. It needs a chance to settle, it will improve with more racing."

Both Guineas trials and the Dubawi stakes are ran on the dirt on Thursday

will be interesting if MDK follows through ,he now has a load of runners with no available races

seemingly MDK is now saying the racingpost sensationalised his comments and he will have runners on the dirt lol

Backtrack,quicktrack or slowtrack

great news lol

Back on track

www.dubairacenight.com/de-kock-says-dirt...nts-sensationalized/

I would imagine Yorker and Via Africa, at least, were always going to be Duty Free and Al Quoz horses anyway.