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| Rowan Anderson |
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Abu Dhabi hosted a six-race card on Thursday including a 1600m conditions race for 4YOs where the partnership between trainer and hoop delivered another double in a showcase.
During Thursday's meet, Ernest Oertel and hoop Tadhg O’Shea continued to show how well their partnership works with a double.
In the Al Bahr Towers Handicap came the first win for the pair with six-year-old Musannef who had not won since March this year.
From the jump, he tracked the leaders while stablemate Yakhtem shot away on the turn into the home straight to lead by three lengths.
O’Shea let his mount down with 300m left to run coming over the top of the pack with a great turn of foot in the final 25m to take the win.
“He is actually unbeaten over this 1200m in the capital after just two opportunities,” jockey O’Shea said.
It was a tight win by a neck but in the end, an Oertel-trained quinella with the more experienced of the two got the upper hand.
Race five saw The Etihad Towers conditional run over the 1600m and the second for the Oertel/O’Shea partnership with Maqam.
A handy three-length win began with the horse getting out to sit second and when 100m was left to run in the trip Maqam ambled up to eye the leader pulling away for the handy win.
The homebred colt was made it his third win from seven starts but his first victory at the Abu Dhabi track after four starts there (0-1-1). The further distance of 1600-1700m looks the spot for the four-year-old after winning three starts ago over a similar distance at Sharjah on the dirt track.
“That was a good victory in a decent race against some of the top 4yos in the UAE. He found trouble in the running but he was good enough to get out of it and he should have learned a lot today,” trainer Oertel told media.
The final race of the meeting was the only race for thoroughbreds on the card and is believed to be the first-ever race for juveniles to be held in the capital.
Run over 1600m the Fairmont Marina Maiden was aimed at 2YOs stepping out with hopes of announcing themselves on the track.
The winner Tempesta D’Oro did exactly that winning by 2.25 lengths with a great ride from Xavier Ziani on board.
In just his second start the son of Bolt D’Oro showed he was better than his debut a week ago in Meydan where he beat home only one of his opponents.
By Rowan Anderson