Just last night I was lamenting the sale of Racecar Rhapsody to an unidentified middle eastern buyer. You may remember I really liked him in the Preakness (you know, the race where Big Brown showed up when I was betting he wouldn’t, just a race too early!).

This reminded me of another horse that I was intrigued by that was whisked off to Dubai after one impressive effort in the late fall. National Pride, made a notable debut on November 17th at Aqueduct, winning by 1 3/4 lengths over a Brooklyn Backstretch favorite, Saratoga Russell.

DRF reported:

On Nov. 17, National Pride won a six-furlong maiden race at Aqueduct by 1 3/4 lengths, covering six furlongs in 1:09.27 and earning a 92 Beyer. National Pride is a 2-year-old son of Macho Uno, the juvenile champion of 2000. Friday, National Pride arrived at Payson Park in Florida, where Rick Mettee oversees a string of Godolphin runners.

“He sustained a 3 1/2-furlong run in the race,” Mettee said. “It’s not like he ran for the final eighth of a mile and the field fell apart. You don’t see 2-year-olds do that too often.”

Mettee said National Pride would most likely begin a 30-day quarantine at Payson on Dec. 16 and ship to Dubai in mid-January.

So last night I made my way over to the Godolphin to see if I could find out anything about National Pride… had he raced again, was he in training? Nuttin’.

Imagine my surprise just a few moments ago when I went to my DRF virtual stable to see that he’s back on the work tab at Keenland!!! He breezed 3F at 36.4 (5/32) over a fast all weather track… AND, Numaany, who was also purchased by Godolophin around the same time must have worked with him as he posted a 3F breeze at 38 (20/32), his second at Keenland!

How exciting! I wonder what they’re training towards? Does anyone know anything about this? Perhaps we’ll also see Racecar Rhapsody again, I hope so!