Durban July weights
June 9, 2015Holiday time
June 11, 2015GLOBETROTTING Mubtaahij earned himself a nice following among horse lovers in the USA following his exploits in the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.
Twitter, especially, was crammed with good wishes after Mubtaahij made the frame in last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and the cartoon below was posted by Mel (@dailyracefunies), and published on Daily Racing Funnies as Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum’s three-year-old was getting ready to leave US shores on Tuesday.
“Mubtaahij is somewhere between Amsterdam and our stables Newmarket, UK, now,” Mike de Kock told on Wednesday morning. “We’ll give him a break now, six weeks or so. He’s had a tough campaign and thoroughly deserves a period of rest.”
Mike complimented jockey Irad Ortiz, jr. for his professionalism and good attitude and said: “This is a top class youngster. He will go places.”
“Such class and sportsmanship shown by this whole team! Wish they could stay here forever!” tweeted Lisa Frieze (@LisaF713), one of several similar sentiments expressed on the popular social media platform. “He’ll be back, and with a faster animal,” opined DRF columnist Jay Hovdey (@jayhovdey) in response.
Mike described the Belmont Stakes as an awesome occasion and he was fascinated by the talent and power of Bob Baffert’s superstar, American Pharoah. He had a conversation with Baffert, shared some thoughts and was among the hordes of racing fans to snap a few photos of the now world-famous Triple Crown winner after the race – captured below by US editor and writer Frances J Karon (@francesjkaron), who tweeted: “After the race, Mubtaahij trainer @MdkRacing stuck around to record American Pharoah’s winner’s circle celebrations.”
4 Comments
As a retired trainer, I was absolutely facinated with Mike DeKock and his outstanding Team during their American Triple Crown Adventure. Would loved to have been a “fly on the wall” when he and Bob Baffert spoke.
And to Mubtaahij; have a great rest. See you flying down the stretch in Dubai
You did not mentioned honorable who stood by Mubtaahij day and night on tweeter gathering more and more followers for three weeks, rather mention one tweet after the race, that one tweet. Never the less respond to any tweets that were directed to you. But I gave a lot of praise to your barn in NY. Day and night week after week.
We will all miss Mubtaahij very much but wish him the very best. Thanks Mike De kock for bringing him to the US and sharing this special boy with us. Will love our Moobie always. Hope he comes back again someday.
Mike, could you tell us more about your experience at the Belmont. I have heard the crowd noise was incredible and did you enjoy and learn anything during this trip to the states. Any thoughts would be appreciated and I hope to see more of you here in the US. It was nice to play a horse of yours here after playing them and watching you race all over the world.