Albertus Maximus, who leapt to the forefront of the prospective Dubai World
Cup (Gr.1) field with his Donn Handicap (Gr.1) victory, continued to impress
trainer Kiaran McLaughlin with a strong workout on Saturday at Palm Meadows
Training Center in Florida.
McLaughlin caught Shadwell Stable’s newest star in :59.80 for five furlongs
and said the five-year-old son of Albert the Great galloped out six furlongs in
1:13.20, which was the official workout time posted by Equibase.
“He’s doing super,” McLaughlin said. “He’s just a wonderful horse,
very talented, and extremely sound. And he’s a great horse to work with. He
has a high cruising speed and we just couldn’t be more happy to have him.”
Albertus Maximus joined McLaughlin after Shadwell bought the horse following
his win in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on October 25. The four-time Dubai
champion trainer said there are some undeniable parallels with his 2007 Dubai
World Cup winner Invasor, who also raced for His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin
Rashid al Maktoum’s Shadwell Stable.
“They’re similar in a couple of ways,” McLaughlin noted. “They both
train aggressively and they don’t ever get tired. That’s a great quality for
a horse to have.”
Although Albertus Maximus had not won beyond 1 1/16 miles prior to the 1
1/8-mile Donn and was known primarily as a synthetic track miler, McLaughlin
said he has no worries about his runner’s ability to handle the Nad al Sheba
surface or the Dubai World Cup’s 2,000 meters.
“We’re happy to go a mile and a quarter on that racetrack over there,”
he said.
McLaughlin plans to work Albertus Maximus weekly until he is shipped to Dubai
on March 17. Once in the United Arab Emirates, Albertus Maximus will probably
only gallop up to the World Cup.
An earner of more than US$1.2 million, Albertus Maximus has won six of 16
career starts and set a Del Mar track record for one mile last year.
In related news, McLaughlin said Albertus Maximus’s jockey Alan Garcia will
fly to Dubai and ride on the Super Thursday program at Nad al Sheba on March 5
to familiarize himself with the track prior to the Dubai World Cup on March 28.
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