Treble for Oertel was better than expected in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI // Ernst Oertel supplied the first three horses home last night in the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice Jockey World Championship, over 2,200 metres.

Turkish jockey Vahdettin Kaplan produced Munzade to lead in the dying strides, denying stable companion Najm Alemarat, ridden by Gianni Siaffa of France.

Oertel’s third runner, Forgehill Cezanne, ran on in the straight to grab third, with England’s Emma Sayer in the saddle. Siaffa was always prominent on Najm Alemarat and kicked for home at the top of the relatively short straight with about 400m to go.

That appeared a race-winning move until his mount started to tire close to home, providing Kaplan the opportunity to drive ahead as the pair flashed across the line.

They hit the front where it mattered, to the delight of the Turkish jockey and visible disappointment of the French rider.

With the winning jockey not speaking English, it was left to Oertel to say: “What a great result it is for the yard and team at Al Asayl.

“We like to support these races and they are a great initiative from Sheikh Mansour and we are all very grateful.

“It is a great experience for these young jockeys, and I have to credit my three – they all rode well and exactly to orders.

“We knew we had three big chances in the race, but could not split them. That was a better result than we could have hoped for.”

There was drama on the home bend when the Eric Lemartinel-trained Theoretically appeared to clip heels with a rival and unseated Gianluca Sanna – despite the valiant efforts of the Italian to stay in the saddle.

It appeared that neither horse nor rider was injured.

sports@thenational.ae

Treble for Oertel was better than expected in Abu Dhabi

The trainer supplied the first three horses home last night in the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice Jockey World Championship, over 2,200 metres.