THERE were smiles all round in the winner’s enclosure at Meydan on Thursday night after Liquid Mercury had galloped to a commanding win the $US175,000 Gulf News Handicap over 2435m on turf under Christophe Soumillon.

The big grey South African-bred finished full of running in his second Dubai start to win by 1,50-lengths after Soumillon had weighed in 1kg overweight but had no trouble securing the lead with 300m to go. Soumillon was able to punch his mount out confidently without using the stick over the last 150m.

Liquid Mercury: Hands-and-heels. (Andrew Watkins)

Mike de Kock was very satisfied with the performance and said: “Liquid Mercury is turning out to be a good buy for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and thanks to Joey Ramsden who gave us confidence to acquire the horse last year. He’s also been very helpful with advice since.

“Liquid Mercury is a sound and honest horse and he’s settled in nicely here in the desert. I told Christophe he could ride it 1kg overweight as I knew it was too light for him. We believed Liquid Mercury was much better than rated and having the stable jockey ride him was preferred, even if he was overweight.

“As I said yesterday, we didn’t want to step Liquid Mercury into a distance race like this so soon, but we had no choice and he came through his test zestfully, he won with something in hand.”

Mike wasn’t sure about the quality of the field, but it should be noted that the second horse, Code Of Honour was the runner-up to Vercingetorix in the 2014 Ford Taurus Trophy over 1800m and on that alone can be no slouch.

“We have two options with Luiquid Mercury. We’ll consider the Nad Al Sheba Trophy over 2810m or the Dubai City of Gold over 2410m for him next. Golden Soul is a contender for the Nad Al Sheba Trophy too. We were impressed with the way he stayed on tonight in the Gulf News Trophy, he is a nice horse and will make improvement.’’

Flasy grey with flashy groom: Thomas Ncume, very proud of Liquid Mercury, held  by Christophe Soumillon. Mike and Diane de Kock are also in attendance.

Mike congratulated Gaynor Rupert of Drakenstein Stud with her first winner in Dubai and said: “Liquid Mercury is by Trippi and I am surprised that he has such good stamina. The important thing is that our breeders and horses in South Africa are top class, they prove it almost week after week!”

Mike also had praise for the grey’s groom, Thomas Ncume, this week’s ‘Man In The Mirror’. He told: “Thomas gave us confidence every day. He wouldn’t know about Liquid Mercury getting beat. He said early in the week that he was going to be in Andrew Watkins winners’ photo and that he wanted to look ‘better than Michael Jackson’. He bought himself a smart new suit and even got some white gloves for the occasion. That’s confidence for you!”

Watch Race Replay Here.