I will start with a look at the winner. Dubai Beach was visiting the winner’s enclosure for the 4th time in her 11 race career and this was a first success on the turf for Saeed Bin Suroor’s daughter of Blue Point. She has taken her time to acclimatise since moving to Dubai this Winter, but with each start she has found some improvement and this performance has to be considered to be a career best effort. The widest draw in stall 6 and the fact that her stablemate was drawn inside her and likely to be one of the fastest horses to leave the stalls meant that Kieran Shoemark was always likely to drop in behind the pace, but that appeared to really suit and Dubai Beach was more than capable of making up for any ground lost at the start. A winning time of 1:35.67 was 0.83s outside of the race record time set by Magic Lily in 2020, although it was 0.54s slower than the Azizi Mina Handicap won by Folk Fortune later on the card over the same course and distance. The finishing speed of 105% from the winner does suggest that this developed into a decent pace in the final half a mile and that really suited Dubai Beach. At 40.92 mph, Dubai Beach was the only horse to produce a top speed figure above 40 mph and her late speed figure of 38.74 mph was significantly quicker than the 38.46 and 38.27 mph figures recorded by the 2nd and 3rd placed horses. She was the horse that finished the strongest, running the fastest individual split for each of the final 3 furlongs of the contest and galloping through the line to record a run-out speed of 36.22 mph. She finished very strongly and her top speed and average stride frequency figures both reached their peaks in the final 3 furlongs. There’s no obvious reason to think that the form of this year’s Cape Verdi Stakes would be reversed if they meet again and it is highly likely that Dubai Beach will end the season in Dubai with a shot at Group 1 glory.

Dubai Beach may well have run a career best, but this was also a significant step in the right direction from Quid Pro Quo. She was a multiple G1 winner in South Africa during her time with Barend Daniel Botes but had shown very little on her first start for Jerome Reynier when finishing down the field in the Listed Prix Miss Stamina Stakes at Deauville in December where she finished 10th behind Alva. However, she showed far more on her first start at Meydan and although Dubai Beach ultimately got the better of her in the closing stages, there was just 0.21s between the pair over the final 3 furlongs. Quid Pro Quo was slightly unbalanced in the penultimate furlong and having raced directly behind the pacemaking Dubai Treasure, I can forgive her slightly tired final furlong. It can take time for Southern Hemisphere horses to adjust, especially the Fillies and Mares, but this was a huge step forward from her Deauville run and it did suggest that she retains the ability that she showed earlier in her career.

Dubai Treasure improved rapidly in 2025, rising from a rating of 85 in June to a peak of 108 after winning the Listed Boadicea Stakes in October. Although she found the Dubai Dash far too quick for her last time the step up to a mile has brought out some significant improvement. Setting fast early fractions after taking 5.8s to reach 50 km/h when the stalls opened and ran 13.93s to the first furlong pole to hold the lead on the rail. At an average of 22.81 ft, she had the shortest stride in the field but she maintained her high stride frequency, which dropped by less than 3% in the final furlong despite her early exertions. She was understandably vulnerable at the end of a well run race, but going around the bend has worked in her favour and there should be opportunities for her to dominate a race from the front before the Dubai season is over.

As a piece of form, I would expect this race to work out and the progress being made by Dubai Beach is a definite positive to take from the data in this year’s Cape Verdi Stakes.