Patrick Dobbs double denies Richard Mullen at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club

Patrick Dobbs rides Indescribable to victory in the Gee Whizz handicap at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club ion March 12, 2017. Christopher Pike / The National

ABU DHABI // Patrick Dobbs rode a superb double and twice denied Richard Mullen from putting a victory on the board in last night’s penultimate meeting at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.

Mullen, the leading UAE jockey with 51 winners this season, arrived at the capital’s racetrack on the back of a treble each at Meydan Racecourse on Thursday and Al Ain on Friday.

He had to make do with two runner-up prizes behind Dobbs, who rode Arif to victory over Dhamin in the second race before clinching a thriller on the Doug Watson-trained Indescribable over Satish Seemar’s Ejbaar under Mullen in the concluding handicap for thoroughbreds.

That win stretched Watson’s lead over Seemar to two, taking his tally to 37 in the UAE trainers’ championship race.

Dobbs had the first run on Indescribable but Mullen came with a late run on Ejbaar and they both flashed past the post almost together.

The photo finish had the former holding on by a short head.

“That’s horse racing,” said Seemar. “It was his [Ejbaar’s] first start in Abu Dhabi and he ran a good race.”

Ernst Oertel saddled a double to take his tally to 26 winners, double the number he achieved last season after going out on his own as a trainer.

Antonio Fresu rode AF Asheham to a wire-to-wire victory in the opening maiden and Tadhg O’Shea produced a strong late run to claim the fifth race, the Wathba Stud Farm Cup, for South African trainer Oertel, and both in the silks of his main patron Khalid Khalifa Al Nabooda.

The two winners also put Oertel one win ahead of Eric Lemartinel in Abu Dhabi, taking his tally to 17.

“So far so good,” Oertel said. “It’s only my second full season in starting up and we are always looking for more.

“Thanks to Khalid [Khalifa Al Nabooda].

“He has been a lifesaver for me. I have around 60 horses in training and 99 per cent are bred locally.

“We are going strength to strength and it’s looking good.

“We had a lot of young horses last season and we had horses we were repairing.”

AF Mathmoon, bred locally by Al Nabooda, became the first Purebred Arabian last year to win the Dubai Kahayla Classic, the traditional opener of the Dubai World Cup meeting.

“Khalid keeps producing good horses,” Oertel said.

“It’s his aim to show that we can produce quality race horses in the UAE.

“It’s costing a lot of money but we are getting the results.

“We had a difficult start with a new staff.

“It was a new relationship with me and Khalid, even though I had I known him for 20 years.

“Working together was a new thing, but it has been great, as we are getting there.”

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