Almond Eye Makes the Dubai Turf Her Own

Mark Smith - Sunday March 31

The Japanese love to showcase their best on the world stage and they don't come much better than Almond Eye.

I will refrain from the tired old Winx comparisons and just say she strode around that track at Meydan like she owned it to defeat another Japanese visitor in Vivlos, who has the dubious distinction of being the only Japanese-bred to feature on Best On Breeding.

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Grant Courtney was trackside to capture all the action


She arrived in Dubai with a huge reputation and Japan's super filly Almond Eye proved herself on a world stage at Meydan when showing brilliant acceleration to win the US$6 million Dubai Turf sponsored by DP World.

The Lord Kanaloa filly, trained by Sakae Kunieda to win all three legs of the Filly Triple Crown and the Japan Cup at home, produced a well-timed run by Christophe Lemaire to land the 1800m Dubai Turf.

The race provided a great result for Japan with compatriot Vivlos a length and a quarter back in second and Deirdre finishing fourth. British trainer David O'Meara saddled Lord Glitters to produce a career-best run to take third.

Sakae Kunieda, Trainer, ALMOND EYE (1st)—"It was a really great race. She broke well, settled well, got a good position and accelerated well to win well. It was the result I thought we could get and I'm happy she proved us right. I was nervous, I've lost my voice. Almond Eye can continue my dreams, so next we'll go to Europe, our dream is to take her to the Arc."

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