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| Rowan Anderson |
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Ten wins for the season so far were notched up by trainer Khalifa Al Neyadi overnight at Al Ain.
A winning treble helped the Al Ra’ad trainer mark the milestone as well as set him on the path to beating his winning training record for the season set last season of 14-16-14.
The first leg of the treble came from a horse trained and owned by Al Neyadi, Barjah, winning in the Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap by close to five lengths with Jesus Rosales on board.
Run over 1800m the race being set up for privately owned horses.
Chasing leaders down, Rosales took his mount up to lead 300m from home rolling on with the win and putting the margin on the rest of the pack.
The second win came in the sixth race when Antonio Fresu piloted Sarab home for Al Neyadi in an impressive ride after chasing down the leaders to hit the lead 250m out storming home.
The Rathowan-Money to Burn 4YO colt broke his maiden after coming close last month at the Al Ain track but having to settle with a second behind Sadn.
The final race on the card rounded out the triumphs for the Al Ra’ad Stables when 5YO mare As Qoot made it two wins on the trot, taking out the Al Qattara Handicap.
Over the 1000m As Qoot patiently before taken up through the middle, hitting the lead 100m from home with the grey stretching out to win by a margin with Saif Al Balushi on board.
The partnership of master trainer Bhupat Seemar and Tadhg O’Shea was on show once again when Yurman took out the Al Masoudi Handicap.
The only race for thoroughbreds on the card being run over 1600m all talk pre-race was around an Al Ain track specialist, Antimo, who was stepping out for the first time for the Al Neyadi stable.
The 9YO had two victories over 2000m at the Al Ain track and in eight visits had only finished out of the first three on one occasion and so was heavily backed but would finish seventh.
The gelded son of Dubawi looks to have shown Dubai World Cup-winning jockey Fernando Jara that he needs further ground to show what he is capable of - which is sure to be considered in future runs.
In what looked like an easy win, Yurman was sat midfield by O’Shea before finishing well, making it the first win for the 5YO since January breaking his maiden in Jebel Ali.
The victory marks Seemar’s tenth win this season and the 20th for hoop O’Shea, who continues to defend his jockeys’ championship title strongly.
By Rowan Anderson