The Uraguayan rolling of the tongue with his name is great. Hear the enthusiastic call of the Gran Premio Nacional, the 3rd leg of the Triple Crown, with Invasor crushing the field and taking the TC:
video youtube.com “2005 G P Nacionale” 2:45 run time
Unrelated, but a ‘bonus video’ of an incident discussed last year: youtube.com “Mary Poppins” Visits Ellis Park 
It is so weird to have been reading about these races for so long, and my son showed up unexpectedly in Dubai. 
I guess it’s the city of choice for the short leave he gets off the carrier. Just kind of amazing.
In case anyone needed a reminder of how good Discreet Cat is - at least for 1-mile - here is his win last fall without even breaking a sweat:
youtube.com video Jerome Stakes Handicap (G2) Oct 1, 2006; time 1:42
Worth noting Discreet Cat carried 124 pounds and gave up as much as 10 pounds to some others in that sprint field.
Although the World Cup is 1 1/4 mi and while he trounced Valid Notebook you can be rather certain Invasor is a whole other league 
Reuters Photo: Mar 29, 2007 Invasor galloping, rider up not identified
As mentioned in one of the Invasor articles, he is known to have two lingering ‘South American horse’ characteristics: (1) he’ll run with his head up (2) he’ll run with his head cocked to the side
Some additional - and larger - workout photos from 3/29/07:
UK’s Sportling Life gives the nod to Invasor and they haven’t given up on Lava Man being a strong threat in the Dubai Duty Free. However they’d pick Best Name, Formal Decree or Flashy Wings first. For the Dubai Sheema Classic they think no horse has a chance whatsoever to knock off Sir Percy.
SportingLife.com “Invasor To Conquer World”
The NY Post (Ed Fountaine) makes the picks as well for the fantastic Dubai fields and what is going to be an impressive race day. Shockingly in my view they put the nod with Discreet Cat to win it.
NY Post 3-30-07 “Stellar Field for Dubai”
DUBAI WORLD CUP: Discreet Cat handed Invasor his only loss in 11 starts when he beat him by seven lengths in last year’s UAE Derby on the World Cup undercard. Although Discreet Cat has never been the distance and hasn’t raced since last November, he’s the pick to handle Invasor again.
$1M GODOLPHIN MILE: Boston Lodge, a horse for the course who is 3-for-3 at the distance, gets the nod over Godolphin’s Killybegs and France’s Merlerault.
$2M UAE DERBY: Give Asiatic Boy, with three daylight wins at Nad Al Sheba this winter, a sight edge over Godolphin’s Eu Tambem going a mile-and-an-eighth.
$2M GOLDEN SHAHEEN: American invaders have dominated this six-furlong sprint. Go with Todd Pletcher’s Friendly Island, Garrett Gomez riding, over Kelly’s Landing and Bishop Court Hill.
$5M SHEEMA CLASSIC: The German gelding Quijano is 10-for-11 including three straight over this turf course going today’s mile-and-a-half distance. Youmzain has a chance at a price.
$5M DUBAI DUTY FREE: Can Lava Man finally win outside California going a mile-and-an-eighth on grass? Probably not, especially going up against Mystical, the pride of India, who’s won 16 of 19 starts.
Good man Glimmer, you’re about the only one keeping the thread going. You’d think it was some insignificant fair meet was going on in Dubai with the lack of interest.
no lack of interest, just nothing to say. . .
The field for the Dubai Duty Free, 1777m.
An interesting, nay fascinating race this one. First off, the distance, an extended mile, or an abbreviated 9f, depending on how you look at it. Is it a race for milers or 1¼m horses? With Nad al Sheba being flat as a pancake, with gentle turns and a 2½f run-in, there are no excuses for traffic problems.
The Euro contingent is a bit anemic this year. Best Name, Stormy River and the filly Flashy Wings wouldn’t be considered top tier. Despite the lack of top Euro milers (this race would have been perfect for a horse like George Washington imo), there is some class horses that have flown in from around the world.
The Japanese duo of Admire Moon and Daiwa Major are topping the betting, with justification. Of the pair, I’d give the edge to Daiwa Major, as he’s more a true miler than Admire Moon, who strikes as more of a middle distance horse.
The South African mare Irredesence could be a serious treat is she has recovered her form of early last year when she put away the likes of Ouija Board and Bullish Luck in the QEII in Hong Kong. She was sent to France in the summer and came up short in open company in the Prix du Moulin (8f) against some decent milers, and then finishing down the field against F&Ms in the Prix de L’Opera on Arc day.
There are a couple of South African campaigned horses, Kapil and Bad Girl Runs. Hard to know how they stack up here.
One of the most interesting entires in the field is appropriatley named Indian horse, Mystical. A multiple stakes winning champion back in India, he has won two prep races since arriving at Nad al Sheba in Feb. How good is he? We’ll find out.
There are three US contenders in this one. Of the three, English Channel would stand head and shoulders above as the classiest Turf horse. However I don’t think this distance suits him at all, and think he will lack for the big closing kick. Lava Man is an interesting entry, but even putting aside his well known inability to perform outside of California, he will also be facing much tougher Turf horses than he is used too in his few grass races. Miesique’s Approval comes into this as the reigning BC Mile champ, but I personally don’t rate this horse and felt his win in the Mile was a bit of an anomoly. He won’t be running on a tight 7f turf course tomorrow, so I don’t fancy his chances (watch him prove me wrong).
My bet for the race though is the Aussie invader, Pompeii. He is in great form at the moment, won the Australian Cup 3 weeks ago, beating a strong field that included Twaqueet, the classy Coolmore/Aus filly, Aqua d’Amore and El Segundo. Two weeks before that he won the St George Stakes (G2) beating many of the same oppostition. Last Nov he was involved in one the most exciting race finishes of the year, finishing 3rd by ¼L to Fields of Omagh, in the Cox Plate (G1). The distance suits, he’s proven and he’s showing all the signs of an Aussie horse racing himself into form, as they like to do down under.
1(1) 6-3321 Seihali D Selvaratnam 8 9-0b J Murtagh 20/1
2(2) 2814-4 Best Name Saeed Bin Suroor 4 9-0 L Dettori 12/1
3(3) 21424- Stormy River N Clement 4 9-0 O Peslier 10/1
4(4) 1154-3 Irridescence M F De Kock 6 8-9 W C Marwing 14/1
5(5) 117-11 Lava Man Doug O´Neill 6 9-0tv C Nakatani 7/1
6(6) 111-11 Mystical S Ganapathy 5 9-0 Martin Dwyer 25/1
7(7) 112-31 Kapil M F De Kock 5 9-0 R Fradd 20/1
8(8) 23-711 Pompeii Ruler Mick Price 5 9-0 C Newitt 8/1
9(9) 3/023- Flashy Wings M R Channon 4 8-9 Richard Hughes 25/1
10(10) 4732-1 Admire Moon H Matsuda 4 9-0t Y Take 5/1
11(11) 1413-1 English Channel T Pletcher 5 9-0 J R Velazquez 10/1
12(12) 1141-5 Miesque´s Approval M D Wolfson 8 9-0t E Castro 10/1
13(13) 44113- Daiwa Major Hiroyuki Uehara 6 9-0h K Ando 1 11/2
14(14) 31-112 Formal Decree Saeed Bin Suroor 4 9-0 Kerrin McEvoy 14/1
15(15) /170-1 Bad Girl Runs M F De Kock 5 8-9 M J Kinane 33/1
16(16) 1245-1 Linngari H J Brown 5 9-0 K Shea 16/1
I don’t have a comment. But thanks for posting it and especially posting the television info. I can’t wait.
Although my co-workers are tired of my “En-vas-or, he is the best” shout-outs.
The “play of the day” is Irridescence in the Duty Free. She is ready to run the race of her life and is 30-1 on the ML.
The favourite wins the first race, and a woman trainer to boot, ex point to pointer Gillian Duffield.
Sheihk Hamdan off to a good start… is this a good omen for Invasor?
So hard to get used to Arabians trying to be TBs, just looks weird.
DUBAI KAHAYLA CLASSIC (Arabians, 10f, G1, $250k)
Btw, the winning time was 2:16:20… Secretariat could have spotted these guys 3/16s mile and still beat them
Btw, that’s the third year in a row that Madjani has won this race.
His breeding… Tidjani (FR) - Salama (TN) by Sibawaih (TN)
I wonder what country TN stands for? (no, it ain’t Tennesee).
Please keep the updates coming,my satellite is down!
Horses behind the gate for the Godolphin Mile. Horses loading 1 minute to post.
You can watch at www.youbet.com
They are streaming the Channel 4 feed from England, fantastic coverage, lots of cool informative stuff.
Thanks!
Spring at Last takes the Godolphin Mile for trainer Doug O’Neill, a facile win in the end, pulling away in the last furlong.
Godolphin Mile (G2, $1m)
Options with getting the race:
(As suggested by equidaily.com)
Audio /Radio coverage via punter site William Hill
Video link to track offerings - Dubai is listed; the rub is you appear to must have a youbet.com account
The results are there at least too
Dubai Racing Club - Race Replays 2007
And of course HRTV is covering it live
ABC Sports will have the World Cup at 2:30 EASTERN today
8 mtp for the UAE Derby, horses getting ready to come out on the track. There are 5 South American bred horses in this one, three from Argentina (including the hot favourite, Asiatic Boy, trained by South afrrican strapper, Michel De Kock), and two from Brasil.
If a Northern hemisphere horse wins this they’ll have an garunteed spot in the starting gate at Churchill for the KD should they decide to go.
Field
UAE Derby 2000m (~10f), G2, $2m
1 RALLYING CRY (USA) 3/55kgs S bin Suroor UAE T Durcan
2 JACK JUNIOR (USA) 3/55kgs B Meehan UK R Hills
3 JOE LOUIS (ARG) 3/59kgs I Jory KSA M Kinane
4 DAY PASS (USA) 3/55kgs S bin Suroor UAE G Gomez
5 VICTORY TETSUNI (USA) 3/55kgs H Mori JPN Y Take
6 TRAFFIC GUARD (USA) 3/55kgs J Moore UAE J Egan
7 BARTOLA (ARG) 3/57kgs J C Maldotti KSA P Falero
8 GREETINGS (BRZ) 3/57kgs P Nickel Filho BRZ R Mullen
9 SEAL POINT (USA) 3/55kgs C Wroe UAE P Eddery
10 ASIATIC BOY (ARG) 3/59kgs M de Kock UAE W Marwing
11 FOLK (USA) 3/53kgs S bin Suroor UAE K McEvoy
12 ADIL (KSA) 3/55kgs J Gardel KSA K Desormeaux
13 EU TAMBEM (BRZ) 3/59kgs S bin Suroor UAE L Dettori
Horses loading. Bartola giving major problems loading, took almost the whole gate crew to manhandle him in.
[QUOTE=Drvmb1ggl3;2331049]
…including the hot favourite, Asiatic Boy, trained by South afrrican strapper, Michel De Kock[/QUOTE]
I believe that the Daily Racing Form referred to him as the Todd Pletcher of South Africa 
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