Te Akau Dubai Preview

Te Akau has one horse racing on Saturday at Meydan in Dubai.

Going: Good

1.45 a.m. (NZ time - note daylight saving) R2 15 Torcedor (6 g Fastnet Rock - Magnolia Lane) - Colm O'Donoghue; has drawn barrier 15 of 16 in the US$1 million Dubai World Cup (Gr. 2, 3200m). Last time out, on 10 October at Ascot, he finished second to Order of St George (Galileo) in the £260,000 Qipco Long Distance Cup (Gr. 2, 3200m), having also finished second to the same horse on 10 September in the Irish St Leger (Gr. 1, 2816m) at The Curragh.

Purchased by Te Akau principal David Ellis for 70,000 Euro (NZ$115,000) at the 2013 Deauville Yearling Sales in France, he is owned by Sir Patrick Hogan, Sir Peter Vela, Mohammed Moussa, and Laurie Laxon, and trained by Jessica Harrington in County Kildare, Ireland. Torcedor has won four of his 16 starts, five seconds and a third, and earned NZ$624,400 in prize money.

Fixed odds: 16 to 1.

Ellis said: “I've received some images recently of him from Jessisca Harrington and he just looks amazing, which is quite incredible coming out of one of the worst winters ever in Europe, and now he's arrived in Dubai where it's so hot. So, to see him look as well as he does is an enormous credit to Jessica.

“He's a hell of a good horse and interestingly when I bought him at the sales he was Lot 1.

“His dam, Magnolia Lane (Sadler's Wells), is a sister to British superstar Yeats (Sadler's Wells) and I was there to see Yeats win his fourth consecutive Ascot Gold Cup. It was an unbelievable occasion and the greatest performance I have ever witnessed on a racecourse. There has only been one horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times (Makybe Diva) and the Gold Cup is the equivalent of the Melbourne Cup in Europe.”