THREE-year-old filly Vale Dori (ARG) is one of Mike de Kock’s big hopes for Dubai World Cup night this Saturday.

The lightly raced Vale Dori takes on a small field including unbeaten Polar River in the Gr2 UAE Derby over 1900m on dirt and while the overwhelming sentiment among pundits is that trainer Doug Watson’s filly is as good as past the post, Mike feels it’s not “race over”.

Vale Dori with groom John, Blue Stables on Tuesday. (Andrew Watkins).

He said: “Vale Dori is a very smart filly, right up there with the best we’ve brought to Dubai. She shows us plenty and she gives Christophe Soumillon a very good feel. She’s well above average and while she didn’t have a good start to the season she is sound now.

“Vale Dori had done quite a lot of work before the UAE Oaks but she’s improved with the run. She was 0.75-lengths in second off Polar River but if the race was 100m further, perhaps we could have beaten her.  I’m not convinced that Polar River ran all the way to the line. It will be Vale Dori’s second run back which is not ideal but we have to play the cards we’ve been dealt.”

Mike has won the UAE Derby six times, including the 2007 renewal with Vale Dori’s sire, Asiatic Boy.