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| Staff Writer |
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Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's yellow and black silks maintained their dominance in their own backyard on Saturday afternoon. The founder and patron of Jebel Ali Racecourse, Sheikh Ahmed, saw his resident trainer Michael Costa saddle the winners of four out of six Thoroughbred contests on the seven-race card. All four winners were ridden by retained rider Ben Coen.
Sheikh Ahmed's dominance in the UAE Owners' Championship continued as he widened the gap between himself and his nearest rival by 11 wins, boasting a total of 19 winners. Meanwhile, Australian trainer, Michael Costa, who is in his second season at Jebel Ali, sits comfortably at the top of the trainers' standings with 19 wins, all of which were for his employers.
With Saturday's four wins, jockey Coen moves up to joint-second position on the leaderboard with Bernardo Pinheiro, both seven wins behind the current leader, Connor Beasley, who has a total of 20 wins.
Ma Yetal, one of the four winners trained by Costa-Coen, was the most impressive of the lot. He won the juvenile 1200m Conditions event by a whopping 13 and three-quarter lengths, leaving his four rivals disheartened. The enthusiastic and vocal crowd was treated to a sparkling performance from Ma Yetal, who raced in his silhouette with Coen barely moving for two-thirds of the sprint. The pair took the lead approaching the 400m marker, and Ma Yetal could have won without much effort from Coen. However, Coen decided to give his mount a tug with 300m left, and Ma Yetal flew like a bullet to win too cosily. Million Doro, who picked up the baton from his teammate, finished a further nine and three-quarters of a length ahead of third-placed Acclaim To Royalty.
Great Alaska, one of the two horses trained by Ahmad bin Harmash, set a furious pace, which proved too strong for him to handle by the halfway mark. However, Million Doro was up to the task, and he finished second behind Ma Yetal.
Costa said, “We bought him Ma Yetal at the Keeneland sales last year. He was picked on type; looked like a cool horse, he had wide eyes and a big white patch.
“He was underdone today and was probably only about 80 per cent wound up so I wasn’t expecting that result. The instructions were actually to take care of him if he wasn’t going to win as he had a really big blow. There’s plenty more upsides for him. We’ve taken him over to Meydan and we actually felt before today that he handles Meydan better than here so we’ll see what happens.
“Ben said he got tired in the furlong and said he just kept him within his rhythm. There’s a lot of fitness improvement to come.”
Kal Barg finally got his first win on his sixth start and brought the Costa-Coen pair their first victory of the day in the 1200m Maiden Stakes sponsored by Al Shafar Investment. Kal Barg won easily by eight-and-a-half lengths from Condor Pasa, with Al Arbed finishing third.
Sadaaty won the Al Sufouh Stakes, a handicap sponsored by Shadwell, after coming second in a course and distance handicap four weeks ago. The 4YO Munnings colt won by a length-and-a-quarter from teammate Meshtri, with Andreas Vesalius finishing third.
According to Costa, Sadaaty surpassed expectations in his first run and seems to like this track. They may stretch him out to a mile in the future. Keffaaf won the Emirates NBD Cup maiden with a zippy run in the straight, winning by four-and-a-quarter lengths.
The Zero to Eighty Five Sprint Handicap was blown wide open after the heavy favourite Mojeyrr was withdrawn late on vet advice. Major Cinnamon gave owner-trainer Marwan Al Baidhaei and jockey Lucas van Rensburg their first-ever UAE wins with a frontrunning effort. Atlantic Sky finished second, followed by stablemate Al Shibli in third.
Bin Harmash's Zaman won the Emirates Airline Cup, a handicap, with Saif Al Balushi scoring by a length-and-a-half. Violent Justice finished second, with Vasilakos in third.
The Wathba Stallions Cup 1950m handicap was won by Eyjabi, trained by Dennis O'Brien and ridden by Richard Mullen. Al Mansour NF finished second, with Itchy De Nacre finishing third under Bernardo Pinheiro.