Real World pencilled in for Super Saturday return

Real World, not seen since finishing a creditable second to Baaeed in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, has been gelded and is likely to reappear on Super Saturday at Meydan.

Saeed bin Suroor’s flagbearer was suffering with a cough in the second half of last summer and never made it back to the track, having also finished second to Baaeed in the Lockinge at Newbury.

After two failed attempts on dirt in last year’s Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup, that experiment has been put on the back burner and he will race exclusively on turf from now on.

“Real World we know is a very smart horse, but sometimes when he went racing he wasn’t always thinking about it completely,” said Bin Suroor.

“In the mornings at home he was fine, but only when he got to the races did he start to get excited, sweating very badly and was coltish. He still ran well, but we made the decision to geld him in the summer.

“He was coughing a lot in the summer, that was why he hasn’t run since Ascot. It took him a long time to get over it, he had a lot of mucus. We just couldn’t run him.”

He went on: “Hopefully he’s over it now. It was frustrating, we had such a good horse and couldn’t run him. But you can’t run them when they aren’t healthy.

“He’s doing well so far in Dubai, in full training, but I want to find a race for him on Super Saturday, maybe the Jebel Hatta.

“We’ll keep him on the turf this year. We gave him a chance on the dirt but he didn’t handle it well, so that’s it. We’ll keep him to turf.”