Watson seals treble after landing glory in Listed Stakes at Jebel Ali Racecourse

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Jebel Ali staged a quality card on Sunday, seven Thoroughbred races featuring both the 1000m Listed Jebel Ali Sprint and 1950m Listed Jebel Ali Stakes.

The Jebel Ali Sprint was dominated throughout by a pair of Shadwell runners, the 2020 winner Alkaraama, who was also third in the race last year, making a bold attempt to lead all the way under Jim Crowley but passed in the final 125m by Pat Dobbs aboard Khuzaam for Doug Watson.

Third on his local debut, over 1200m here at Jebel Ali in late November, he then bled during his next start, a month later, when looking poised to win at Meydan over 1400m.

A homebred Kitten’s Joy gelding, this was his fifth career success after four wins in Britain for Roger Varian, each one on an all-weather surface.

Watson said: “He ran so well here the first time for us and would have won at Meydan if he had not bled. We had to take our time with him after that but this was a good target and we are delighted to win that, especially for Shadwell.”

An hour later, Watson was celebrating a big race double after the Jebel Ali Stakes success of Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni partnering the impressive winner for his main employer, Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum.

Pat Cosgrave tried to steal the race entering the long straight aboard Irish Freedom, the pair attempting to concede weight to their eight rivals and, 500m out, it was apparent they had burned off most of the opposition.

Atzeni’s mount was the exception and the pair stayed on doggedly to deny Irish Freedom what would have been a hard fought success in the final 100m

The concluding 1950m handicap also went to Watson, again combining with Dobbs, this time aboard Rougher for the Emirates Entertainment Racing Club (EERC).

The meeting kicked off with a 1400m conditions event for the 3yo Classic generation in which Pat Cosgrave produced Al Habash late to land the spoils for Fitri Hay and Bhupat Seemar.

Victory appeared unlikely at halfway with the Arrogate colt seemingly struggling to keep in touch with his eight rivals but, once hitting the steepest part of the incline, picked up in style to catch promising debutant Seven Drums in the final 75m.

It was a case of third time lucky for the winner who had shown promise over 1600m on the Abu Dhabi turf after a modest debut, over the same trip, on the Meydan dirt track.

Eight of the nine runners who took their chance in a 1600m conditions contest may have stayed at home with Tenbury Wells always appearing in control under Royston Ffrench for Salem Bin Ghadayer and Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.

Ridden to get to the lead shortly after the start, the 5yo gelded son of Medaglia D’Oro then probably never saw a rival, pulling clear over the concluding 300m to register a third career victory but first locally on his seventh UAE appearance, all this season.

Day Approach, a dual winner in Singapore, opened his UAE account on just his second local start, running out the easy winner of a 1200m handicap, Ray Dawson in the saddle for Ahmad Bin Harmash and Al Rashid Stables.

A 5yo gelded son of Dawn Approach, he had shown promise when seventh in a capacity field of 16 at Meydan on his first UAE start in a 1600m handicap a month ago.

Having finished runner-up on both his previous starts at Meydan, Celtic Prince scored a deserved victory in a 1600m handicap having been sent clear by Richard Mullen, riding for Rashed Bouresly and the Bouresly Racing Syndicate, fully 500m out.

It was a third career success for the 7yo Shamardal gelding but first at Jebel Ali having twice won at Meydan over 1600m, most recently last January.