Three-race meeting added

A special meeting of valuable handicaps have been arranged by the Presidential Court to mark the visit of the Turkmenistan president.

ABU DHABI // An additional three-race meeting takes place tonight at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club arranged by the Presidential Court for the visit of the Turkmenistan president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamdedow. The races are valuable handicaps and have drawn maximum fields of 14 runners for a purse of Dh150,000 per race. The action on the turf kicks off with the Emirates Challenge Cup (7pm) followed by the Turkmenistan Gold Cup, both for Purebred Arabians, and the Ashgabat Gold Cup for the thoroughbreds, a handicap rated 0-85.

Erwan Charpy, the trainer, has a strong presence in the final race with jockey Pat Smullen on Satwa Street, Richard Hills on Morghim in the silks of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid and David Badel riding Valiance. Satwa Street has run eye-catching races on his two local starts, both over the minimum distance of five furlong on the dirt, and the Elusive City colt should have benefited from the experience to go close in this field.

"The seven-furlong is a bit too far for him but he stands in class to get the trip," said Charpy of Satwa Street. "He is a horse with potential and having run a couple of good races on the dirt at Jebel Ali, he should be up to the task. "Morghim has stayed well in training but he is an old horse and may run a good race, and Valiance too comes with similar opportunity." Rashed Bouresly's Bab al Bahrain, who won a six-furlong conditions race on Sunday, returns to pose a threat along with Dhruba Selvaratnam's Zoom One and the consistent Palm Court from the in-form trainer-jockey combination of Ali Rashid al Raihe and Royston Ffrench. @Email:[e-mail]