Prince Of Arran (outside) just misses out in the 2019 Melbourne Cup © Racing Photos

By Carl Di Iorio

Globetrotting dual Melbourne Cup placegetter Prince Of Arran is stranded in Dubai following the cancellation of Saturday’s World Cup meeting.

British trainer Charlie Fellowes describes himself as being ‘incredibly frustrated’ by the timing of the decision to scrap the meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Prince of Arran was one of several European horses who flew out to Dubai last Friday in anticipation of racing in the US$1.5m (A$2.6m) Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup (3200m) at Meydan this weekend but the meeting was scrapped less than 48 hours later.

"It's incredibly frustrating that Prince Of Arran is now stuck out in Dubai as we'd been asking over and over again if this meeting was going to go ahead and were assured that it was,” Fellowes told Racing Post.

"Now the problem is getting the horse and Kelly Cochrane, the girl who is with him, back here (to Britain) which might not be easy.

"If we'd had an inkling that this was going to happen, we wouldn't have sent the horse with the other Europeans on Friday.

“Quite why they left it this late to call it off I don't know but the decision obviously transcends racing."

Prince of Arran, who has been placed in the past two Melbourne Cups, briefly returned home following his third-placed effort in the US$2.5m (A$4.3m) Longines Turf Handicap (3000m) in Saudi Arabia on February 29.

This article first appeared on Racing.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission. 

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