ABU DHABI // Forjatt looks like a leading contender for the National Day Cup, judging by the convincing manner in which he won the Prep race on Sunday night.
Forjatt was given a splendid ride by stable jockey Christopher Hayes and travelled smoothly from the middle of the pack to lead from the 200-metre mark, winning by three-quarters of a length from Busker under the German jockey Frederik Tylicki.
Winning trainer Dhruba Selvaratnam said Forjatt will now be aimed at the National Day Cup in Abu Dhabi in two weeks and will also target the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
Hayes settled Forjatt behind a wall of horses in the middle of the 14-runner field before making his move approaching the final bend of the 1,600-metre race.
The Irishman made his challenge from the outside to hit the front and held off the late challenge of Tylicki with Annunciation back in third under Wayne Smith.
“I thought he took the lead too soon but he stayed on gamely to win pretty well,” Selvaratnam said.
At 110, Forjatt was the highest-rated horse in the field and recorded his second win at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.
It was only his third start in the UAE capital. He ran third in this race in 2013 and won the President’s Cup Prep over 1,400m last year.
“It was nice to get a winner here,” said Hayes on his first winner at the capital’s track on his debut season. “He was the best horse in this field and he did it very nicely tonight.”
In the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup Prep, the featured race for the Purebred Arabians, Areem, ridden by Smith, bounced back to record his first win in eight starts.
“He’s a very smart horse,” Smith said. “He likes to get in front, dictate and put the other horses to bed early.”
The jockey got the multiple Group-1 winner quickly out of the stalls and soon had him bowling along in his trademark front-running tactic, opening up a four-length lead before winning by two-and-three-quarter lengths from the Tadhg O’Shea-ridden RB Torch.
Areem’s victory did not surprise trainer Nacir Samiri, who completed a double on the night with Bibishena winning the final race of the night.
“He’s a class horse” he said of Areem, “and tonight he proved he still has a lot of ability to win top flight races,” added the Moroccan, who is a trainer for Al Wathba Stables of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
“He got a bit tired towards the end but that is understandable because it was his first run in more than seven months.
“Our target will be to run him in the Sheikh Zayed Cup in two weeks, but that depends on how he has come back from this race.”
apassela@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @NatSportUAE
