![\"MEYDAN,](\"http:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/amw2798.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI knew the horse had the class to win this race. Some horses improve with age, and it\u2019s great to see him win. This is great for me and for everybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jockey William Buick, who just last November signed a retainer with Godolphin, kept Prince Bishop to his task after he powered past California Chrome and early pacesetter Hokko Tarumae (JPN) in a matter of strides in a powerful stretch rally from just off the pace.<\/p>\n
When they crossed the finish line, Buick blew a kiss to the crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe it. This is surreal,\u201d said the 26-year-old Buick. \u201cI didn\u2019t look back. I just kept going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buick followed Bin Suroor\u2019s instructions to stay clear of the kickback on Meydan\u2019s new dirt track, and the trainer indicated that may have been the key to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaeed and the whole team had a lot of faith in (Prince Bishop) going into the race today. He has a very unorthodox way of racing, so I took him out of the kickback in the back, and when I got onto California Chrome’s tail, he picked up the bridle and listen, he ran on well in the end,\u201d Buick said.<\/p>\n
Prince Bishop, who had finished second by a neck to stablemate and 2014 Dubai World Cup winner African Story (GB) in the Group 1 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 at Meydan on March 7, crossed the finish line in track record time of 2:03.24 for the 2000m.<\/p>\n
African Story finished well back in an attempt to defend his World Cup crown, checking in sixth in the field of nine.<\/p>\n
California Chrome proved valiant in defeat, enduring some rough-and-tumble jostling around the turns after breaking from the outside post, and he finished a length and a quarter in front of his American-based rival Lea.<\/p>\n
Racing for the inaugural Dubai World Cup-winning trainer Bill Mott, Lea was bottled up and checked while trying to rally from the rail in the stretch run but he also finished gamely.<\/p>\n
Jockey Victor Espinoza said California Chrome \u201cran awesome.\u201d Co-owner Steve Coburn hugged the jockey and kissed California Chrome on the nose as his voice choked with tears, saying: \u201cYou ran your eyeballs out. You are still America\u2019s horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed like the other horses were bumping me around in there on the first turn and then on the far turn,\u201d Espinoza said. \u201cHe kind of lost his stride a little bit on the (home) turn because the horse on the inside (Hokko Tarumae) pushed me out. That kind of took some of the air out of his lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jockey Joel Rosario said of Lea. \u201cHe ran his race\u2014it was a very good race. He was always there for me, every time I asked him. I was on the inside and he didn’t like to be there. He kept trying and going. When I turned for home, if I had a little room, I think I could have been second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prince Bishop captured the lion\u2019s share of the $10m purse, with $6m staying in Dubai with Godolphin. However, the Americans were well rewarded for coming to Dubai, with California Chrome earning $2m and Lea gaining $1m for their connections.<\/p>\n
Following Lea across the finish line were Candy Boy (USA), Hokko Tarumae, African Story, Long River (USA), Side Glance (GB) and Epiphaneia (JPN).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a huge crowd at Meydan cheering and jubilantly throwing their racing programmes in the air, Godolphin\u2019s Prince Bishop (IRE) unleashed the run of his eight-year-old life to defeat American challengers California Chrome (USA) and Lea (USA) in the 20th anniversary renewal of the Dubai World Cup sponsored by Emirates. Running in the colours of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1416,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions\/1416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}