Just minutes after winning the TVG Pacific Classic (G1) in course-record time, Donegal Racing’s Dullahan was given a definitive long-term goal of the 2013 Dubai World Cup (G1) at Meydan. Lead owner Jerry Crawford identified the race as the most firm goal in Dullahan’s future, with a stop at the 2012 Breeders’ Cup a likely next spot.
Dullahan has, quite possibly, one of the strangest lifetime records of any horse in recent memory. The half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, Dullahan has three lifetime wins after Sunday’s score at Del Mar, all three wins coming in Grade 1 company. Last October, Dullahan broke his maiden winning the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland (G1), and earned his second lifetime win in the Toyota Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland in April. He was third in the 2012 Kentucky Derby (G1) on dirt at Churchill Downs, reprising a similar solid effort in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November.
Trained by Dale Romans, the barn is no stranger to the world’s richest race. Romans prepared Roses In May to win the 2005 Dubai World Cup after a second in the both the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Classic and 2005 Donn Handicap.
Dullahan defeated Game On Dude by a half-length, and a troubled-trip third for former Dubai-based runner Richard’s Kid. Watch Sunday’s Pacific Classic below.