LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If Mubtaahij should become the first horse to journey from Dubai to win the Kentucky Derby, it would not be because everything before the race went according to plan.
Mike de Kock, one of the premier trainers in South America, has made adjustments almost from the moment Mubtaahij, a 3-year-old colt, arrived at Arlington International Racecourse near Chicago on April 15, ending about 24 hours of travel. Trevor Brown, his assistant, called de Kock to tell him the colt “looked a little tucked up.”
That is as bad as it sounds. De Kock explained that “tucked up” meant the horse dropped a significant amount of weight because of a loss of fluids despite the best efforts to cater to him.