MAGICAL LAND is a few days away from looking destiny right in the eye. The Frankel gelding is at the forefront of the Gulf Racing Club’s exercise to race imports at Meydan, with intention of exporting to Australia after completion of the Carnival.
MAGICAL LAND was twice placed at Meydan, going down by a short-head on two occasions. His Australian career has also been one of near misses with his last start yielding a second place finish. Importantly, this was in a “heat” for the Final which he runs in on Thursday. The Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final is a 1600m event worth $500 000 and the owners of the gelding will be hoping he cashes in on his overdue bit of luck, for a big pay day! He renews rivalry with MAXIMUS PRIME who defeated MAGICAL LAND last time by 1.25 lengths. This time, the GRC runner is 2kgs better off and should relish the step up to 1600m.
Thursday’s race is carded as the seventh race on the day and will be run in Australia at 16.30pm, which is a 7.30am call time in South Africa and 9.30am in Dubai.
