UAE 2000 Guineas win may predict big things for Maftool

Godolphin end up the big winners at Meydan on the night with four champions, Saeed bin Suroor saddles three winners and Paul Hanagan rides two horses to victory.

DUBAI // There were three Group 3 dirt races at Meydan on Friday evening, headlined by the 1,600-metre UAE 2000 Guineas.

Mike De Kock and Godolphin have dominated the race since it was first run in 2000 and won by Bachir, who went on to victory in the equivalent races in France and Ireland.

Subsequent UAE Derby winners Essence Of Dubai (2002), Victory Moon (2003), Asiatic Boy (2007 and the UAE’s only Triple Crown winner Honour Devil (2008) and Musir (2010) all won this race en route.

Throw in Soft Falling Rain, who then won the Group 2 Godolphin Mile on World Cup night, and 2001 victor, Street Cry, who won the Dubai World Cup the following year, and it has been a race to follow.

Not surprisingly, it turned into a Godolphin-De Kock battle with Saeed bin Suroor joining the South African trainer on five winners in the race.

Paul Hanagan was in the saddle on Maftool, who landed the spoils having not dwelt from the stalls as he had when third in the 1,400m trial behind De Kock’s Mubtaahij.

“He can be a problem at the stalls, as we saw last time,” Hanagan said, “but he is a decent horse and can only improve because he is still learning.”

The 1,200m Al Shindagha Sprint developed into a match between former Group 1 Golden Shaheen winners Reynaldothewizard and Krypton Factor. It was the former, ridden by Richard Mullen for Satish Seemar, who prevailed from the 2012 winner of the same contest.

“He is a class sprinter – we all know that,” Mullen said. “He always worked particularly well on dirt at home and has really taken to this new surface. This was a strong race and he has won that nicely in the end.”

Having already landed the UAE 2000 Guineas on Maftool, Hanagan completed a big race double by steering Tamarkuz to the easiest of victories in the 1,600m Group 3 Firebreak Stakes.

The Musabah Al Muhairi-trained chestnut never looked extended as he led the 10-horse field and Hanagan only had to shake the reins, and give his mount a reminder with his heels as they straightened for home, to race to a four-length victory.

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