Saeed bin Suroor-trained Thunder Snow claimed victory in the US$10-million G1 Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline on Saturday in front of his home crowd at Meydan.

He gave Godolphin a fourth victory at the 2018 Dubai World Cup Night, and was the UAE stable’s ninth success overall in the Dubai World Cup.

Suroor, celebrating his eighth Dubai World Cup winner, commented: “Thunder Snow is a brilliant horse. He is a G1 winner twice in the past in France and now he has come back to win the Dubai World Cup. It is a very big result.

“I think Christophe Soumillon did a great job with Thunder Snow – he took him from stall 10 and kept him somewhere close and handy. He put the horse in a good position and won well – it was brilliant from the jockey.

RACE LIKE THUNDER

“Thunder Snow won really well and Christophe knows him very well. I know people were worried about being drawn in stall 10, but I was always relaxed about this because I know that Thunder Snow can take a nice position as he has a good turn of foot.

“I told Christophe to forget the draw and be close after he jumped – the closer he was to the pace, the better his chance of winning. Christophe is a world champion and he rode Thunder Snow as the best horse in the race.

“This my eighth victory in the Dubai World Cup and I hope that we can win it again in the future.”

Jockey Christophe Soumillon added: “I thought I was dreaming! When I came into the straight, I couldn’t feel anyone following me and thought that I better make Thunder Snow concentrate because I know that he can do something sometimes with the big screen and the marks on the track.

“When I looked up at the screen, I saw the white cap and the blue colours going quite easy in the front and thought that I had better go until the line. It’s magic – I work hard every day to make sure that something crazy like this might happen.

“It was a bit difficult this morning to think that we could win the Dubai World Cup, but we tried very hard and Saeed gave me a lot of confidence before the race.

“It wasn’t that difficult and Saeed has done a great job. The horse was in top form today. It makes a jockey’s life much easier when you ride the good horses.”

Dubai World Cup – Race winners

Godolphin Mile – Heavy Metal (S Jadhav/R Moore)

Dubai Gold Cup – Vazirabad (A De Royer-Dupre/C Soumillon)

UAE Derby – Mendelssohn (A O’Brien/R Moore)

Al Quoz Sprint – Jungle Cat (C Appleby/J Doyle)

Golden Shaheen – Mind Your Biscuits (S Summers/J Rosario)

Dubai Turf – Benbatl (S bin Suroor/O Murphy)

Sheema Classic – Hawkbill (C Appleby/W Buick)

Dubai World Cup – Thunder Snow (S bin Suroor/C Soumillon)