ABU DHABI // AF Maqayes proved “sprinting is his game” after picking up his biggest career prize — the Dh300,000 Al Ruwais Group 3 — in Sunday night’s six-race card at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.
Jockey Tadhg O’Shea had Khalid Khalifa Al Naboodah’s homebred bay son of AF Al Buraq bolting out of the starting stalls, and he led all the way to win the 1,000-metre dash by two-and-a-half lengths from Ain Jaloot under Fernando Jara.
RB So Rich, fourth in this race 12 months ago, finished third this time out but more than 10 lengths adrift of the winner.
“There are no races over this distance for the Purebred Arabians in his level at the start of the season, so he had to run over the longer distances, which was a pity,” O’Shea said of AF Maqayes.
“Sprinting is his game, and he loves the grass here. He has a lot of speed, quickens up and he’s a pleasure to ride.
“He’s very, very genuine and very straightforward.”
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O’Shea, who also won Race 3, the Gold Cup, aboard Hamza for trainer Eric Lemartinel, then completed a hat-trick by riding ES Fatek in to the Winner’s Circle in Race 5 for Grandstand Stables trainer Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
AF Maqayes’s victory on the night was his seventh overall and fourth over the 1,000m distance.
Another Purebred Arabian to impress on the night was Maisoor, who stayed perfect on the season with his eighth win from eight starts.
The Burning Sand colt left his rivals gasping for air in the Listed Arabian Triple Crown Round 1 for four-year-old Purebred Arabians, the second race on the card last night, over the 1,600m.
Trained in Oman by Said Al Badi and under Omani jockey Anas Al Siyabi, Maisoor took over the running from the halfway mark and romped home by more than six lengths.
Al Siyabi was all hands and heels on the grey colt as he guided him to the shortest way home.
The battle really was for the runners-up spot between Lemartinel’s trio with Amwaj and jockey Royston Ffrench second, followed by Tahany and Harry Bentley and Mawahib with Nicolas Barzalona aboard in fourth.
It was Maisoor’s second visit to Abu Dhabi and the results were much the same.
On the first occasion he left some of the same rivals in last night’s rematch also struggling when he finished more than 10 lengths ahead of them in the Listed Abu Dhabi Championship over the same distance.
The remaining six of his victories have been at the Muscat track.
“People told me he had won over most of these rivals previously and not to get worried, but you are worried until the race is over,” Al Badi said. “He’s a good horse and he proved it tonight by winning by more than six lengths.
“The second round of the Triple Crown would be the next option depending on how he’s come out of this race.
“And the long-term objective obviously would be the Dubai Kahayla Classic on the Dubai World Cup meeting.”
Antonio Fresu and the Ernst Oertel-trained Tijaara took the opener and Patrick Cosgrave bagged the concluding prize on Satish Seemar’s Taaj, the solitary race for the thoroughbreds.
apassela@thenational.ae
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