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| Staff Writer |
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The £140,000 His Majesty The King's Cup (sponsored by BAPCO) went the way of Zagato who powered clear of his rivals for trainer Hesham Al Haddad.
It was a dominant performance from the son of Frankel, who built on his 6 ½ length success in the final Bahrain Turf Series race, to land Listed honours. His jockey Neil Callan even had time to wave to the crowd in the final ½ furlong having put the race to bed with a decisive move in the straight. Encourage under Jimmy Quinn and Tawaareq under Adrie De Vries finished second and third respectively.
Hesham Al Haddad operates from the internationally successful Fawzi Nass stable and afterward Nass paid tribute to the winning horse, he said: “Zagato is a running machine. If he keeps doing that, he’s a proper racehorse. He’s well-bred so he is supposed to do what he’s done today. We’ll have to give some thought to where we go next. He definitely showed there that he is the number one.”
Neil Callan has enjoyed a stellar debut season in the saddle in Bahrain and is the leading jockey for the season. After the race, he was full of praise for the yard and the winning horse. He said: “It’s a distance that not many of the horses have been over before but this horse is so uncomplicated. He ran a very good race when he was third on his first start in Bahrain, but he just wasn’t quite there. From that race onwards he’s just improved. After he finished second to Classical Wave I rode him in work the following week and it was like riding a new horse, he’d just improved so much. That just gave me confidence. He’s just got everything. He relaxes, he stays, he’s got a turn of foot. Today the pace was quite relentless for a long way so I was happy to take my time. Fawzi, Hesham and their team are just the best operation to ride for and you can’t ask for much more than that.”
Callan has been retained for the season by HH Sheikh Sultan Al Deen bin Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa’s AlMohamediya Racing operation and Callan spoke about how much he has enjoyed riding for him. He said: “His Highness Shaikh Sultan puts a lot of effort into it, he’s a very knowledgeable owner. It’s amazing to be part of the team. I’d never been here before. I knew about Fawzi (Nass) and I knew about a few of the other owners. I’d seen Shaikh Sultan’s horses running in England. I had one ride for him in the summer at Newmarket when he was there and we got introduced to each other. He seemed a very pleasant, easy-going guy. The first thing he said to me when I came to Bahrain was that he’s a very good loser and that’s all I needed to hear. He takes the rough with the smooth and gives you every confidence to go out and rid