Satish Seemar and his stable jockey Richard Mullen will have a strong presence at Jebel Ali’s opening 'all thoroughbred' seven-race meeting on Friday.
The Zabeel Stables trainer has 15 horses across six races while Mullen is booked to ride in all, including East Asia for Mahmood Hussain in the concluding handicap.
The highlight of the Jebel Ali card is the fourth race – a handicap rated 85-105 that has drawn 13 runners including last year’s winner High On Life and runner up Riflescope.
The Salem bin Ghadayer-trained High On Life heads the weights with Ali Rashid Al Raihe’s Eqtiraan, a Listed winner in the United Kingdom when trained by Richard Hannon.
Royston Ffrench is seeking a fifth win on High On Life and he is quietly confident the eight-year-old will be competitive.
“We know he likes it at Jebel Ali and he showed he stays 1,400m last year in this race,” he said. “He seems in good form at home and should run well in a strong race.”
Eqtiraan, last seen when finishing fifth in the Group One Jebel Hatta at Meydan’s Super Saturday meeting, has a fair chance under Dane O’Neill.
Mullen will ride Bochard, runner up in his second last start over the course and distance in March. Prior to that, he won twice on the track two years ago.
Seemar has two other entries in the race; Riflescope is ridden by Jose Santiago while Polish rider Szcepan Mazur is on board Above Normal.
Mullen rides Lady Parma in the opener. The American-bred Exchange Rate filly has yet to win in five starts but can improve from her fifth behind Habah in a Dh 250,000 Conditions race over a mile trip last March.
However, Mullen’s best chance of a winner appears to be Majestic Thunder in the second race.
The Dubawi gelding caught the eye when travelling from way back of the field to finish third in only his racecourse appearance at Meydan last February.
Mullen's remaining rides are atop Stratton Street in the third race, Coded and Dolmen in the fifth and sixth respectively.
Apart from the thrilling races, fans have a chance to take home some amazing prizes as racing returns for the first of 11 meetings at the popular “Garden Tea Party” racecourse.
Organisers have announced a prize fund of Dh 70,000 for the Pick-Seven and Tricast competitions, with 18,000 gifts to be distributed at the entrance and from the raffle draws.
