South Africa's champion miler, National Spirit, will be a hard horse to beat in Saturday's R500 000, Grade 1 Dubai Racing Club Champions Cup at Clairwood Racecourse according to his trainer, Dominic Zaki, who has had a great season and is currently lying sixth on the national trainer log.

The four-year-old National Emblem gelding faces a tough task in the 1 800 metre event in that he is drawn right on the outside of the 16-horse field and is up against some formidable opposition.

He has won eight of his 22 starts and been placed 12 times, earning R1 486 625 in stakes for his owners. His last two races were the Drill Hall Stakes at Greyville over 1 400 metres and the R600 000, Grade 1 Gold Challenge over 1 600 metres at Clairwood – both of which he won by more than two lengths.

He ran third in this race last year, less than a length behind Winter Solstice and Alastor after racing wide on the bend and hanging in the closing stages. In that race he was also drawn on the extreme outside of the field but Piere Strydom managed to get him over to race up second.

The 1 800 metre start at Clairwood is near the top of the back straight which allows horses drawn wide time to gain a position before they enter the turn and, as National Spirit likes to do it up at the front, he is likely to be handy by that time.

The fact that he has been beaten in his two other runs over more than a mile since then will have pundits believing the 1 800 metres on Saturday is a little beyond him, but Zaki says “no way.”

“I'm not worried about the distance but the draw is a concern. I'm quite happy he will see out the 1 800 metres.

“He is very well and is well handicapped in this race and I'm expecting a huge run from him.”

He said the gelding would travel to Durban at the end of the week and would be at the coast on Friday morning.

“That's the way I like to travel and it works perfectly for me.”

Of the opposition he said there were a few runners with chances but he felt they would have a difficult time.

“I really believe that if all goes his way, he will be very hard to beat on Saturday.”