Juddmonte Farms’ Twice Over took the lead with a furlong to go and cruised to an impressive 2 3/4-length victory in the $300,000 Al Maktoum Challenge R3 Sponsored by Emirates Airline (UAE-II) at Meydan Racecourse March 3. The race is a key prep for the Dubai World Cup (UAE-I) that will be run March 26.
The two-time Emirates Airline Champion Stakes (Eng-I) winner, partnered once again by jockey Tom Queally, was reserved in midfield early on as Mufarrh and Irish Flame set the early pace. Queally continued to rate the son of Observatory behind the leaders until the far turn, where they began to rally five-wide as they moved into the homestretch.
Twice Over took command with just over a furlong to run, and had plenty in the tank to withstand the challenge of Musir, who just held onto second by a nose over the late-closing Gitano Hernando.
Final time for the ten furlongs was 2:05.44 over the all-weather Tapeta course.
Trainer Henry Cecil was not present for the victory, but Juddmonte racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe told reporters afterward, “We have taken a different approach this year and brought him out a lot earlier. Clearly he has thrived and that was a very pleasing win as we are sure there is more to come.”
Queally added, “I was quite wide turning for home so I was happy to go for home with a few others perhaps trapped inside. It worked well and he ran on strongly. He will have needed that, so we have to be excited about the World Cup.”
Twice Over was bred in England by his owner, Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farm. He is a 6-year-old horse out of Double Crossed, by Caerleon. Double Crossed is a stakes-winning half sister to Clepsydra, the dam of stakes winners Passage Of Time, Father Time, and Timepiece.
