"With nine over 2 days, we're going to be racing back and forth to the paddock and the barn and the grandstand," Mettee said. "I'll have to go back and watch the whole card [on tape] afterward."
Sara Louise (Filly & Mare Sprint) is the last horse to beat Rachel Alexandra. Cocoa Beach and Music Note will have a lot to say about the Ladies Classic. Gayego may very well win the Sprint. Midshipman looks like lone speed in the Dirt Mile. Every last Godolphin horse is live.
And this isn't even the real goal for some of them. Some are gearing up for the 2010 Dubai World Cup to be run at the futuristic Meydan Racecourse with its 1,000-meter long grandstand, its 76 million square feet, its hotel, its IMAX and its $1.25 billion cost.
Godolphin is the stable of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the man, along with his family, who have kept American horse sales going over the last generation.
"Everything is being pointed for those big races in Dubai in the winter," Mettee said.
You may want to keep an especially close eye on Girolamo in Saturday's $5 million Classic. The beautifully bred colt likely is not ready to beat all those top horses, but the stable wants to see how he measures up.
The race they really want to win is next March, the $10 million Dubai World Cup when the sheikh will arrive via canal at his new racetrack just in time to win the race with the world's largest purse.
