Abu Dhabi Championship is next target for Mudarrab after latest success

Trainer Erwan Charpy now wants six-year-old to contest Group 3 race following his second success in three starts at the capital’s racecourse

Caption: Mudarrab, ridden by Jim Crowley, won in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. Courtesy Emirates Racing Authority

Erwan Charpy is aiming at the Group 3 Abu Dhabi Championship as Mudarrab’s main goal after his second success in three starts at the capital’s racecourse on Sunday.

Ridden by Jim Crowley, the six-year-old took up the running on the home stretch to win from Rua Augusta and another Charpy runner, Juthoor, by a length and two and-a-quarter lengths, respectively.

“He’s been very consistent and was a bit unlucky in a couple of starts but tonight everything panned out well for him,” Charpy said of his five starts in which he has now won twice and placed third a further three times this season.

“We have a race earmarked for him end of February and then I would like to return to Abu Dhabi for the Abu Dhabi Championship [on March 14], a prize that I have won a few times.”

Mudarrab won his first turf start for the season in Abu Dhabi and was third on his return to the capital’s track. He was unplaced at Meydan and was third again in the next start at the same track.

“He’s a nice horse and loves the ground here,” Crawley said. “There was good pace in the race. He was drawn out wide [Gate 12] but he nicely settled down and then picked up on the straight.”

Brett Doyle rolled back the years with a vintage double on the night for Emirati trainer Abdallah Al Hammadi.

The Englishman, 47, who works for the Godolphin as a work rider, bagged the prize on Maaly Al Reef in the third race and won the fifth race on the bob of a head on Morjanah Al Reef, denying the Irish apprentice Sean Kirrane atop AF Taraha from completing a double.

“Initially, when I passed the line I thought I won but when I watched the replay on my way back I wasn’t sure,” Doyle said of his second winner from Ernst Oertel’s pair AF Taraha and AF Al Montaqem.

Kirrane enjoyed a terrific week by notching up his fourth winner across the last three days.

He rode the Oertel-trained Makerah to victory in the Wathba Stud Farm Cup to follow up his double in Al Ain on Friday and a winner at Meydan on Saturday.

“I haven’t had a winner since November, until Friday,” Kirrane said. “Things are going well now. I hope I can get a few more before the season ends.”

Kirrane arrived at Satish Seemar's Zabeel Stables in the middle of November and rode his first winner for the trainer on board Au Coeur at Jebel Ali on November 29. He did not have any success until Friday's double at Al Ain.