There was a lot of pace in the race and I just held the horse where he wanted to be. Instead, Banishing became the seventh American winner of the 1600m dirt feature. De Sousa said: “My horse was coming back in trip and it suits him, he’s a proper miler. I just took the safe option but the horse wasn’t helping me, he was lugging to the outside when he came into the straight.” Godolphin-bred Banishing, owned by Sharaf Mohammed Alhariri, David Jacobson, Lawrence Roman, took the prize for the United States and Saudi Arabia, winning the $1,000,000 Group 2 Godolphin Mile, sponsored by EMAAR, at the 30th Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse on Saturday. The American Grade 2 winner relished the stamina-sapping test, charging home under UAE champion jockey-elect Silvestre de Sousa for Kentucky handler David Jacobson to deny leading local horseman Bhupat Seemar. Dubai World Cup-winning trainer Seemar finished second (Commissioner King), third (Mendelssohn Bay) and fourth (Diamond Dealer), but the Zabeel Stables conditioner not claim his first Godolphin Mile. He took the turn a bit wrong, with the wrong leg, but he responded well under pressure. “I was happy to follow him [Commissioner King] and also to have Mendelssohn Bay on my inside. I was lucky my horse quickened in the straight.”
