Royston Ffrench is hoping Need To Know can follow up on his victory at Jebel Ali three weeks ago when taking on nine rivals in Thursday night’s feature prize at Meydan’s second meeting.
The gelded son of Western Winter, who is trained by Ali Rashid Al Raihe, was an impressive winner over the 1,600-metre trip on his reappearance and that form has been boosted by the victory since of runner-up Mawhub at Jebel Ali last week.
“We always liked him. He has rarely run a bad race throughout his career and had a good season last time,” said Ffrench, the long-time stable jockey at the Grandstand Stables of Al Raihe.
“He won well at the first meeting at Jebel Ali and the runner-up that day, Mawhub, won last week so the form looks good. This is probably a better race but we have to be hopeful of a big effort.”
Al Raihe is double handed with Le Bernardin, the American-bred son of Bernardini, making his second appearance in the UAE to be ridden by the Emirati stable apprentice Saeed Al Mazrouei.
Doug Watson has three entered with stable jockey Pat Dobbs onboard Shamaal Nibras.
The bay son of Samurai Nibras made a pleasing first start for Watson when a closing second in a 1,400m handicap at Meydan on opening night.
He was trained by Ismail Mohammed locally, but, before that, had won for both Ed Dunlop and Richard Hannon in the UK.
“That was a good first run for us two weeks ago and, on that evidence, the longer trip will suit him. We have Dubai World Cup Carnival aspirations for him so expect a big run to boost his claims,” said Justin Byrne, spokesman for the owners of the Emirates Entertainment Racing Club.
Four of the 10 runners in the handicap race for horses rated 85-95 for the Dh130,000 purse are owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid. Dane O’Neill, the retained jockey of the owner, rides Sefri, who is making his dirt debut for trainer Erwan Charpy. On pedigree, he should handle the surface and he showed plenty of promise during his first UAE season.
Satish Seemar has had an excellent start to the season with seven winners and the Zabeel Stables trainer has a dozen runners entered in five of the six races on the card.
Year Of Glory in the opening race and Tahaamah in the second, both ridden by stable jockey Richard Mullen, look strong.
Thursday’s race card at Meydan Racecourse
6.45pm7.20pm7.55pm 8.30pm Dubai Duty Free and Jumeirah Creekside Hotel Handicap (75-85) 1,200m, Dh 110,000
9.05pm9.40pm Dubai Duty Free Golf World Cup Handicap (70-80) 1,600m, Dh 100,000
apassela@thenational.ae
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