Al Ain racecourse hailed after hosting first official meeting

Royston Ffrench rides to treble while Tadhg O'Shea picks up two wins

Fans watching the opening race on Friday during the first official meeting at Al Ain Racecourse. Satish Kumar / The National

AL AIN // Al Ain Equestrian, Shooting and Golf Club, the country’s latest venue for flat racing, received the thumbs up all round following Friday’s inaugural meeting.

More than 5,000 racing fans turned up to witness the first official race meeting staged since the racecourse was completed more than a decade ago.

Abdullah Awadh, a Sudanese racing fan who has been a resident of Al Ain for almost 40 years, said he welcomed flat racing as a “wonderful picnic weekend for the family” at the Garden City.

“We loved the first experience with family and friends, and for sure we will attend all the meetings in Al Ain,” he said. “We travel to Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi for the races, and Al Ain now provides us another weekend of racing.”

Awadh had a few suggestions for the organisers but said the facilities and the services will improve from this inaugural meeting.

“It is the first meeting and we understand the teething problems, but as fans we expect the organisers to upgrade the facilities by providing more viewing space and shade, being an afternoon meeting,” he said.

Issamuddin Saleh, another Sudanese from Abu Dhabi, said fans were enticed by the entertainment of racing as well as the possibility of winning prizes from the free “Pick Six” competitions, where fans can guess the race winners, and the free raffle draws.

“Ninety per cent of the racegoers are Sudanese,” he claimed, “and most of them arrived from different parts of the country to enjoy today’s races. We can only wish it keeps growing bigger and better.”

Neil Abrahams, the racing manager at the club, acknowledged the “little things we came across today” as normal when developing a racecourse.

“In terms of technical matters, the riders and the stewards are very happy with the racecourse,” he said.

“The technical things are working great, but there are little things we need to improve. At least we have now got to a good start and we want to make it as good as we can.”

Royston Ffrench rode to a treble for three different trainers while Tadhg O’Shea, the UAE champion jockey, won the first and the last races, again for two different trainers. James Doyle scooped up the feature race on the Eric Lemartinel-trained Bigg N Rich.

“It is nice to be part of the history by winning the first race on the track,” said O’Shea, who was onboard the Emirati trainer Bakhit Al Ketbi’s Raad W’Rsan in the opener.

“They got racing very early, about five furlongs out. My horse stays further and it turned out to be a stamina test, which was his forte.”

O’Shea rounded off his campaign by steering newcomer RB Dixie Burning for the UAE champion trainer Ernst Oertel.

Ffrench took the second race on AF Tharb and was back in the winner’s enclosure a half-hour later on the thoroughbred Need To Know. He completed the treble on AF Al Almaa in the Al Wathba Stud Farm Cup.

“Obviously I am very happy with the three winners first time on this track,” Ffrench said. “The track rides very well and it’s going to benefit for more racing once it spreads. The facilities are excellent.”

Doyle stepped in for Ted Durcan to win the biggest prize in the Conditions race over the mile trip.

“You have to feel sorry for Ted, whose father has not been well and he has flown home, but it was a lovely spare ride on what appeared the best horse going into the race,” Doyle said.

“A new surface is always a question mark, but he has handled it well and his class shone through.”

The Al Ain racecourse is an all-weather 2,500m oval with a golf course, the first nine holes in the middle and the back nine outside the track, as the backdrop.

“Al Ain is a great addition to the UAE’s racing calendar and we expect everything to expand and grow,” said Frank Gabriel, Dubai Racing Club’s chief executive.