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On the dirt at Jebel Ali for a seven-race meet Salem bin Ghadayer and the Fazza Racing stable came away with a training double which included a very smart win by a Dubawi-sired gelding who had not won since October last year.
In the second last of the card, the Dubai Real Estate Centre Handicap, it was a showcase of Bhupat Seemar’s training with four of the ten coming from the Zabeel Stables, includes ing the top-rated (85) Melicertes.
The shortest favourite for the card came in this race with the Shadwell-owned and Doug Watson-trained runner Mayadeen.
However, it was to be the five-year-old Tolmount’s day after breaking from the pack with 800m left to travel under a smart ride by Xaviar Ziani.
Once in the open air and extending the lead they came away with the gelding’s second career win from 18 starts.
Mayadeen and Zainhom filled placings in a tight contest between the two and will definitely have shown potential and will be watched going forward based on that performance.
In the opening race, the Green Oasis Trading L.L.C Maiden over 1400m, a field of sixteen competed with the favourite at the jump being the Ernst Oertel trained five-year-old horse Af Al Ahkaf with Tadhg O’Shea onboard.
With seven career starts for three placings, he was coming off a 379 break from the track.
Next best in the market was another runner out of the Oertel stable in Af Musa’ab who was coming off a second placing two months ago over the further 1600m.
Three runners were untested at the track throwing the market wide open with Maddah Al Reef and Af Ferstuq having the most starts (9) from the field.
A great maiden to start the card in the final stages Saif Al Balushi took his mount Meeqat through from the alley to take the lead and pull away and breakthrough on the gelding’s fifth attempt.
Al Ferstuq finished a close second by a neck with Al Man’oot on the rail finishing third in the first.
Another maiden for the second with a far smaller field than the first with only four starters.
The Bhupat Seemar-trained and Tadhg O’Shea-ridden colt Sadik started as a tight favourite with support shared with Flying Hunter.
Sadik jumped near perfectly on the fence and held a tight lead before being overtaken by Mr Raj, but Ray Dawson and Flying Hunter were not going to let them get away easily.
With 100m left to race the classy Irish hoop swept out wide and crushed the competition by a three-length margin to win and help the two-year-old colt breakthrough for his maiden on his career debut and in the process deliver an exacta for trainer Ahmad bin Harmash.
The Union 51 Cup is a handicap race which saw nine starters lining up – Seemar with three chances and Bouresly preparing two horses in race three.
One of Seemar’s trio, Bochart, carried top rating (95) here with fifty-one starts for 9-7-9 off the back of 14-day break between races.
Last start the Dubawi-Camlet gelding ran third with O’Shea piloting and home runner out of the Michael Costa stable, Mersaal, winning that race.
The Shadwell-owned gelding Almoreb held most of the support in the market’s pre-race trained by Mussabeh Al Mheiri for Oasis 1 Stables with Dane O’Neill onboard.
Ibra Attack won in the end off the back of a clinical ride from Adrie de Vries on the rails and crossing with the Seemar-trained Bochart in hot pursuit.
Former Australian trainer now training out of the home stables of Jebel Ali, Michael Costa, prepared a pair in the maiden race four.
A field of nine including two without debuts served as the perfect opportunity to see who did and did not have the ability here.
The Doug Watson trained The Magical Mccool started heavily backed favourite as the gates flew open and the pack bunched up for most of the run.
With the finish in sight, Onda Ruggente was taken forward by Royston Ffrench while Jean Van Overmeire took his mount the gelding Razeemm up to challenge.
In the end Onda Ruggente came away the winner for trainer Salem bin Ghadayer after fending off the challenge from the Micheal Costa trained second-place runner.
The Commercial Bank of Dubai saw the largest field for the day yet with 13 starters – Costa and Refai both preparing a pair.
Before the jump favouritism was shared between three runners in Desert Destination, Rayig and the Boursely trained Imprison.
Strung out across the track and with 200m left to run former Australian-based hoop Jean Van Overmeire took Zaamit to the lead and looked to be a strong finisher here until two swept outside to spoil the party.
Act of Reason ranged up, but the Mussabeh Al Mehri-trained Dignity Joy stuck its neck out on the line taking the win in a great finish.
The last at Jebel Ali saw another small field of five contesting the handicapped race and Harmash with a pair of races including the most tried chance in New Trails (21:4-3-1) – who broke its maiden in February last year over the further 2000m distance.
The Bhupat Seemar trained gelding, Rakeez, was backing up after a great win last month by 3.25 lengths at the Jebel Ali track and had the reliable O’Shea booked once again to pilot the four-year-old.
Having broken his maiden here in December last year he has run four times for two placings and a win earning slight favouritism in the markets.
The pace settled until the final 800 with Rakeez hitting the lead and Tadhg O’Shea rode him out getting Seemar on the board with a great win for the meet to make it nine wins for the season for the master trainer and 17 season wins for the ten-time UAE Champion hoop.