Godolphin’s Rebel’s Romance makes it three-in-a-row with victory in the UAE 2000 Guineas Trial

Buick guides Appleby-trained gelding to victory at Meydan

William Buick guides Rebel's Romance to victory in the UAE 2000 Guineas Trial at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Godolphin’s Rebel’s Romance stretched his winning streak to three from three by running away with the UAE 2000 Guineas Trial at Meydan on Thursday.

The Charlie Appleby-trained Dubawi gelding under William Buick took up the running on the home stretch before staying on to win by a head from the late challenge of Ryan Curatolo on Mouheeb.

“It was always a concern coming from an end of a season,” Appleby said of the Dubawi gelding who won both his starts on British soil.

“He was slow [to start], and that was expected, but William got him into a nice pitch and he was travelling well. Once he angled him out, he galloped well to the line.

“William looked after him well and gave him a nice education but the last couple of hundred yards he looked a bit tired.

“But watching the replays, William was just hands and heels and just keeping it up on his work. He’s a nice scopey horse and will come from this run.”

Godolphin have now won both the UAE juvenile Classic Trials after Saeed bin Suroor’s Soft Whisper landed the 1000 Guineas Trial last week.

Bin Suroor had earlier saddled Godolphin’s first of the two winners on the night when Global Heat under Pat Cosgrave took the second race.

“He’s a nice horse and won back in England and we’ll be looking at the mile and-a-half races for him,” Bin Suroor said. “There is a race for him in the Dubai World Cup Carnival on February 11. We’ll see how that goes.”

Salem bin Ghadayer and his stable jockey Royston Ffrench completed a double on the night. Ffrench rode two contrasting style races. He made every yard of the running on Meshakel to take the opener from stable companion Rare Ninja under Mickael Barzalona.

Topper Bill, ridden by Richard Mullen, wins the Dubai Trophy at Meydan. Chris Whiteoak / The National

In the fourth race, Ffrench – Firnas – on  trailed the leader Mkfancy, also under Barzalona, before producing a late challenge for another one-two finish for the Emirati trainer.

It took Bin Ghadayer’s tally to 18 winners, one more than Ali Rashid Al Raihe who won the second race in the card with Gervais ridden by stable jockey Connor Beasley.

“He [Firnas] is an old boy with very low mileage,” Bin Ghadayer said of the eight-year-old Dubawi gelding who has had only 13 career starts of which eight of them were in the UAE.

“That was his third win in three starts for the season. He showed some good form last season. I believe he’s in top form at the moment and not surprised of his win tonight.”