By MIKE DILLON
Sunline is going to Dubai, but not for the Dubai World Cup.
In a shock announcement last night, Trevor McKee revealed Sunline will miss the $US6 million world's richest race and run instead in the $US2 million Dubai Duty Free.
"We simply can't get her ready for the 2000m
of the Dubai World Cup," said McKee. "It's 2000m on a dirt track which, the way they race, will be more like a 2400m slog and she would not be ready for that with only two runs into her this campaign."
The Duty Free is a 1777m race on grass, a turning track inside the dirt circuit with relatively tight turns which should suit a front-running horse like Sunline.
Sunline will go to Sydney for Saturday's 1400m $A150,000 Apollo Stakes, a race she won last year starting a campaign which brought her second Cox Plate.
She will return to New Zealand on the first flight and leaves for Dubai on Sunday, March 11, two weeks before the Dubai International raceday.
Part of the problem for the Sunline camp has been a four-hour stopover on the tarmac in Singapore, when it is not possible to maintain air conditioning on aircraft.
"The stopover is now two hours - supposedly," he said.
Greg Childs will ride Sunline in Sydney and in Dubai.
What Sunline does after Dubai will depend on how she races there.
"If she performs well we will look at England or America and if she doesn't she will return home," said McKee.
