Windsor's win advances Deira Mile`s Derby prospects
After Deira Mile routinely broke his duck at Windsor, owner Ahmad Al Shaik is once more daydreaming of winning the Derby.
Dubai Mile finished ninth in the Epsom Classic the previous year, carrying the Green Team Racing. This time around, there are high expectations for a better finish.
With the Green Team Racing, Dubai Mile finished ninth in the Epsom Classic the previous year. This time around, there are high expectations for a better finish.
After four juvenile runs, the Owen Burrows-trained Deira Mile was still unbeaten, primarily as a result of misfiring his lines when sent off as a 1-5 favourite at Chelmsford.
Nonetheless, he demonstrated his ability in the Group One Futurity at Doncaster, finishing fourth by less than three lengths behind Ancient Wisdom. He then improved on that performance by obtaining at short odds of 4–9 at Windsor under Jim Crowley.
His owner said to Sky Sports Racing when questioned about his hopes for the Derby, “It is in my blood and my sons’ blood, not just me. We need to go to the Derby and one day we will win – if not me, one of my sons. He is still green but Jim Crowley said the further he goes, the better he will be. We have only 40 days now until Epsom, I don’t think we have time to run him again, so I will discuss with the trainer about going straight to Epsom and I think he will be fine.”
Burrows said: “He’s a big lad and mentally, he’s still quite immature. He had four runs last year, but he is still a big baby. The plan was to try and find as easy a race as we could and it worked out perfectly. He’s ended up hitting the front a little sooner than ideal, as he gets to the front and just thinks ‘Right, what do I do now?’ But he’s had a race.”
Between the last two furlongs of the 10-furlong race, Crowley pulled alongside main market rival Castle In The Sand, and Deira Mile responded to his urgings by winning four lengths.
The jockey said: “It’s the first time I’ve ridden him, but I saw him at Chelmsford last year and I think when he hits the front, he just loses concentration a little bit and he did it there, hence why I gave him a smack, because I just don’t want him to get in the habit of doing it. The race sort of fell apart at the two-furlong pole and I could have quite easily stayed upsides on the bridle, but he probably wouldn’t have learnt an awful lot.”