Lemon Pop carrying Godolphin’s hopes in Dubai Golden Shaheen

Lemon Pop carrying Godolphin’s hopes in Dubai Golden Shaheen

In 11 career starts, the five-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid has won eight races

Lemon Pop recorded Godolphin’s first G1 of 2023 with an authoritative win over Red Le Zele in the February Stakes. — Godolphin

By Joy Chakravarty Published: Fri 24 Mar 2023, 7:19 PM

Dubai Golden Shaheen promises to be the most closely-contested race of Dubai World Cup evening, with very little separating Godolphin’s Lemon Pop, the Bhupat Seemar-trained defending champion Switzerland and American Gunite.

In 11 career starts, the five-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid has won eight races and when he is not collecting gold, he saunters away with the silver. Trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka, he will start as favourite, even though it is his first race outside Japan and will be the first time he drops down to six furlongs.

Lemon Pop recorded Godolphin’s first G1 of 2023 with an authoritative win over Red Le Zele in the February Stakes. As he comes to Dubai, he faces the remarkable challenge of no Godolphin horse ever winning the Dubai Golden Shaheen before.

Harry Sweeney, President of Godolphin in Japan, said: “Lemon Pop’s trainer has always wanted to go sprinting with the horse and we had to lean significantly on him to