Jockey Connor Beasley was all praise for Treasured Times, calling him an "exciting young horse", after they combined to win the Thoroughbred Maiden race at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club on Sunday.
The Teofilo colt, trained by Rashed Bouresly, burst through the middle of the pack to win by two-and-a-quarter lengths from the Satish Seemar-trained King’s Shadow under Patrick Cosgrave.
Wonder of Dubai with Emirati apprentice Saeed Al Mazrooei atop was a further length behind in third.
Making his racecourse debut, Treasured Times had finished a decent fourth behind Storyboard on the Meydan Racecourse dirt 10 days ago.
He topped that performance with a win on Sunday.
“He ran a good race at Meydan in a competitive maiden and it was good to get one on the board for the connections,” said Beasley, who was atop the four-year-old chestnut on that occasion.
“He’s come here and learnt a lot from his first run. He did it in a very professional way today.
“This one can progress further from this run. I don’t know where he would go next but obviously he’s done everything right today.," Beasley added. “He’s improved a lot and can only improve again. So hopefully onwards and upwards.
“He’s run well on the dirt and he’s just won on turf. It’s only his second run so obviously he’s still learning. He went early and did the job nicely to win the race pretty well.”
Saleha Al Ghurair, the first licensed Emirati female racehorse trainer, also celebrated her first win of the season when apprentice Adam McLean came with a late run from around the horses to clinch the Wathba Stallions Cup.
“Of course I’m very happy,” she said. “I knew this was a turf horse and being a race for horses that has never won provided me the opportunity.”
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Ernst Oertel saddled the winners in the first two races under two different jockeys – Antonio Fresu on board AF Motaghatres and Silvestre de Sousa astride AF Maher.
“Abu Dhabi has always been my favourite and I get upset when I don’t race my horses here,” said Oertel, who has saddled nine of his 17 winners at the capital’s track for the season.
AF Maher was winning his fifth race in 11 starts but Oertel feels he has still a long way to go after claiming the handicap rated 55-80 over 1,400m.
“Still no plans but I hopefully the handicapper doesn’t put much on him,” added the South African, who saddled the first two home in both the races.
“Hopefully he can improve further but still he’s still got a long way to go. The season is going well for me. I have been consistent with the strike rate and that keeps me happy.”
Royston Ffrench took the third race on the Khalifa Al Neyadi-trained AF Sanad and De Sousa rounded off the evening by claiming the concluding prize to complete a double on the card atop Ali Rashid Al Raihe’s AF Mahshoum.
