SOUTH African-bred Sanshaawes, Mike de Kock’s contender in Saturday’s Gr1 Dubai World Cup over 2000m on the all-weather at Meydan, drew well at stall 5 in a 16-horse line-up for the world’s richest horse race.

“We’re all happy with the draw,” commented Yousuf Al Sayegh, who represented owner Sheik Ahmed at the draw ceremony on Wednesday.

Here are the draws, with comments from connections:

Stall  Horse                                                           Trainer        
1        Prince Bishop (IRE)                         Saeed Bin Suroor
Saeed Bin Suroor: “He has a good turn of foot and the plan will be to take a good early position. Physically the horse is very much better than last year and we are hoping for a good run. Kieren Fallon gets on very well with him.”

2          Belshazzar (JPN)                            Kunihide Matsuda
Kunihide Matsuda: He usually doesn’t jump quickly from the gate so he will get the favorable position from the number 2 (draw) and it is the best position for jockey can make the most of his technique and it will be a victory draw for us.”

3          Vancouverite (GB)                            Charlie Appleby
Charlie Appleby: “It has been a great build up to the race. We have two exciting horses to run in the race.  I was delighted to draw stall 3 for Vancouverite.  He’s got natural speed and will be sitting handy, so the draw is no problem at all.”

4          Akeed Mofeed (GB)                         Richard Gibson
Richard Gibson: “All the bad draws had already been taken.  The pressure was gone.  I’m thrilled with barrier 4. Statistically it’s the best draw in the race which I didn’t know so we can’t be disappointed with that.”

5          Sanshaawes (SAF)                            Mike De Kock
Yousuf Al Sayegh (racing manager for the owner, Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin KHalifa al Maktoum) said:  “It’s a good number. We’re very happy.  We wanted a number between 5 and 7, and we got that. Mike is happy, the Sheikh is happy.”

Sanshaawes (Christophe Soumillon), with Yousuf Al Sayegh and young Sheikh Ahmed (right).

6          African Story (GB)                           Saeed Bin Suroor
“It’s simple for him. He can be there, sitting handy in the race and use his speed at the end.”

Silvestre De Sousa (jockey) – “Anything between 4 and 8 would have been OK.  You have more choice for position.”

7          Hillstar (GB)                                      Sir Michael Stoute
Coral Pritchard-Gordon (partner of Sir Michael Stoute): “We were last to draw, so I had no choice but number 7 is fine.  A bigger concern is the fact the horse has not been on an all-weather surface before.  We’ll know more about he acts on it on Saturday evening.”

8          Military Attack (IRE)                              John Moore
Very pleased.  Exactly where I wanted to be.  He’s tactically versatile, so being drawn in the middle gives us options and we can watch the race form around us. There’s a lot of Hong Kong interest in the race with two horses in the Dubai World Cup – the world’s greatest race. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”

9          Side Glance (GB)                             Andrew Balding
He’s in good form.  It looks a hot race – even hotter than last year. I’m not sure if stall 9 is a help or not but we’re here again. He’s in good form, and has won a Group 1 down in Australia since this time last year.”

10       Surfer (USA)                                       Satish Seemar
“This is the best draw he’s had. I breathed a sigh of relief when Ron the Greek drew (post) 16. We’ve had very poor draws.  I was hoping for anything up to 7, but he’s still got six horses outside of him and I expected him to be running in the first four or five horses.”

11       Hokko Tarumae (JPN)                   Katsuichi Nishura
“It is best draw I could get.  He worked really well this morning. We’re really happy. I wanted to take from 10 to 13, and there was 11 left in my turn so it was the best draw.”

12       Ruler of The World (IRE)                  Aidan O’Brien
Harry Herbert (racing adviser to Al Shaqab Racing, new partners in the horse)said: “Ideally we would have liked to have been two or three stalls lower, but Joseph O’Brien (jockey) is a master at getting a good position. He will work it with his father Aidan (trainer).”

13       Mukhadram (GB)                             William Haggas
William Haggas said: “I’d have preferred a low one.  We don’t have a clue (about the surface) and we won’t show it to him until Saturday night. The post will make the jockey’s task more difficult, but there’s nothing you can do about the draw or the weather – so you just get on with it.  It’s unfortunate. ”

14       Red Cadeaux (GB)                              Ed Dunlop
Ed Dunlop said: “I don’t think the draw matters too much for him. He wasn’t very well drawn in Melbourne last year. We were drawn on the inside here last year and we’ll probably do the same thing again and take our time. There’s a lot more runners this time.  We’ll take second-place again for sure, I’ll tell you that.”

15       Cat O Mountain (USA)                   Charlie Appleby
Charlie Appleby said: “Mickael Barzalona (jockey) is a bit disappointed with stall 15 but all the good horses are drawn out there.  It is not ideal, but it is not the end of the world.  We will have to play the brave man’s route, drop in along the inside and see whether luck is with us.”

Jockey Mickael Barazalona (Cat O’Mountain (USA), post 15) – “This draw won’t make it very easy.”

16       Ron The Greek (USA)                 Nicholas Bachalard
Nicholas Bachalard said: The horse has been training very well. Not much we can do about it (the draw). The others don’t have to worry now – we’ve drawn it (16). There’s not much to say. (Jose) Lezcano has his work cut out for him. It’s a long way around (from the outside). We’ll look at it, talk about it and figure out a strategy.”