Good Fighter prevails in a photo finish as Satish Seemar completes Meydan treble

Satish Seemar registered a treble in non-carnival meetings at Meydan on Saturday. Having unveiled his exciting new acquisition Gladiator King to land the Group Three Dubai Stakes in the Dubai World Cup Carnival’s opening meeting on Thursday, the Zabeel Stables trainer celebrated another good night at Dubai’s flagship racecourse.

Good Fighter led a one-two finish for Seemar in the second race before Way Of Wisdom led another one-two for him 35 minutes later. Immortalised completed the treble by claiming the fourth race.

Good Fighter, under stable jockey Richer Mullen, lived up to his name while edging out stable newcomer Lake Causeway (Antonio Fresu) in a photo finish in the second race.

“We always thought good of this horse,” Seemar said. “He’s very talented. He was third in his last start and tonight he won by a whisker against another exciting newcomer to our stables.

“Good Fighter will now go for the mile or that kind of distance from now on. Lake Causeway arrived a bit late in the season but we knew he was a little bit special from his first month with us.

“These two-year-olds are difficult to judge but he showed he was capable from the beginning. So we thought he will run well tonight and he certainly did. It was close but I’ll take it anyway as it was a one-two for us.”

Seven-time UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea teamed up with Seemar for his next two winners.

The Irishman rode Way Of Wisdom to beat stable companion Speedy Move under Irish apprentice Sean Kirrane in the turf handicap over the 1,200m sprint.

“He’s a better horse this year,” O’Shea said of the Lonhro gelding. “What he’s done on the dirt shows that. He was a willing partner tonight with the stable well-represented (seven runners in a field of 16).”

O’Shea completed his double on Seemar’s Immortalised. The six-year-old son of Frankel made good headway approaching the final bend before heading the field from the last 100m to beat Mickael Barzalona’s Glorious Poet by a neck.

Barzalona took the opening and concluding prizes on Salem bin Ghadayer’s pair Al Battar and Chiefdom.

Al Battar made smooth progress on to the home stretch to win by three-quarter length from Dark Thunder, who was runner up for the fourth time in his last four starts.

Chiefdom bounced back to win his third prize in four starts for the season, and his first run on turf.

Simon Crisford’s Franz Kafkar, under James Doyle, was an impressive winner of the fifth race.

The four-year-old Dubawi gelding led from the start and went clear from 400m to cross the finish line four and-a-quarter in front of Seemar’s Welford under O’Shea.

“He’s a lovely horse and hopefully he may have qualified for the Carnival. We’ll come back to the Carnival and have him in one of those races on the dirt track,” Crisford said of Franz Kafkar’s first run at Meydan.

“He’s progressive. I think he can handle it. He’s bred to go the distance and tonight’s 10-furlong is a good trip for him.”