Bentornato Heads to Dubai for March 28 Golden Shaheen with Confident D'Angelo

Jose D'Angelo departed South Florida on March 19 to personally accompany Bentornato to Dubai, where the 5-year-old ridgling by Valiant Minister is set to make his return in the $2 million Golden Shaheen (G1) at Meydan on March 28. The race is a six-furlong sprint, a natural fit for a horse who has established himself as one of the premier sprinters in North America.

D'Angelo is heading into the trip with full confidence. "But people there that run the racetrack say that it's safe, all is good to run the race there," he said, addressing concerns about travel to the region amid ongoing Mideast tensions. The trainer, who manages roughly 95 horses in his South Florida stable, is leaving his Florida operation in the hands of his father, Francisco D'Angelo, while he makes the journey.

The Paulick Report's March 19 dispatch described Bentornato as the Breeders' Cup Sprint winner making his 5-year-old debut. According to HorseRacingNation, the horse finished 2024 with a close second in the Breeders' Cup Sprint, then didn't return until September, when he captured the Louisville Thoroughbred Society ahead of his run back at the Breeders' Cup. HorseRacingNation also credits D'Angelo with back-to-back Breeders' Cup wins last year, pairing Bentornato's Sprint with Shisospicy's Turf Sprint victory. "It was a wonderful day," D'Angelo said of that Breeders' Cup sweep.

Bentornato arrived in Dubai ahead of his trainer. His recent form at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach has been sharp: training footage from January 31 shows exercise rider Jose Rivera aboard for the horse's third breeze since the Breeders' Cup, covering four furlongs in :49.45. More recently, HorseRacingNation reported a bullet work of four furlongs in 48.0 seconds from the gate, fastest of 40 horses that day.

For D'Angelo, the trip carries a deeper meaning than just a Grade 1 target. Bentornato is the horse he credits with building his career from the ground up. "I learned with him how to travel with the horses," D'Angelo said. "I owe a lot to that horse because he put me on the map. He let me introduce myself to all the USA, the world. Everything we are living now came from him because he let me introduce myself."

The growth that followed wasn't instant. "I thought I was going to get a lot of horses after that, but it was like two years later, after winning and winning and winning, I started getting horses," he said. "Of course, people knew me about Jesus' Team, so he opened the doors."

Nine days from now at Meydan, D'Angelo gets a chance to add a $2 million international Grade 1 to the résumé that horse helped build.