Gr.3 Dubawi Stakes and Gr.3 Singspiel Stakes headlined Thursday’s card at Meydan, the opening night of the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
SaSatish Seemar and Richard Mullen duo having won the Dubawi Stakes a record four times previously, with UAE sprint legend Reynaldothewizard, landed a fifth, this time with Raven’s Corner, who bested Doug Watson-trained favourite Drafted by 1¾ lengths.
Owned by Touch Gold Racing syndicate, who own the 6-year-old gelded son of Raven’s Pass did not miss the break and was always travelling well. Sent to the lead 300m out, having stalked the frantic early gallop of 23.84 seconds for 400m and 47.12 for 800m dictated by My Catch and High on Life, he was never going to be caught by Drafted, who closed fiercely up the rail under Sam Hitchcott after a troubled trip. Already the course record holder for 1400m, he finished up the 1200m in 1:11.68. The son of Raven’s Pass now holds a record of 5-4-1 from 16 starts.
“It’s fantastic,” said an ecstatic Mike Kaye, the principal of Touch Gold Racing. “We’ll see how he comes out, but the (Gr.3) Al Shindagha (Sprint) would be the plan. If we give him a little break, it would be between that and the Dubai Golden Shaheen.”
Doug Watson who trains both My Catch and Drafted, was pleased with the latter’s performance. “My Catch; I’m not quite sure what happened with him. Drafted, he’s impressing me every time. He’s in with a shot in every race and horses don’t close like that here. He made up tons of lengths in that last (150m). He’s a proper horse.”
Godolphin made a strong start to the Carnival when they landed a 1-2-3-4-5 in the richest race of the evening, the Gr.3 Singspiel Stakes
When Grade 1-winning favourite Deauville began to falter, Saeed bin Suroor-trained duo Dream Castle and Racing History swooped in to take the lead. The former, with Christophe Soumillon aboard, won the US$200,000 affair, by a clear 1½ lengths in a time of 1:49.40. Charlie Appleby-conditioned Salsabeel was third while another from the Bin Suroor yard, Team Talk finished fourth. Appleby’s Bay Of Poets was fifth
The highest regarded of the Godolphin sextet, Appleby-trained Key Victory, failed to factor and finished 12th of the 16.
A homebred 5-year-old son of Frankel, Dream Castle had been gelded since last seen in public and was actually winning for the first time since making a successful debut as a 3yo at Doncaster in April 2017, after which he was fifth in the 2000 Guineas (G1). On what was his 11th career start, he travelled powerfully in the middle of the field before being unleashed by Soumillon with the pair sprinting clear with just over 200m to run, completing doubles for ‘Team Thunder Snow.’
Earlier, the 2410m turf handicap was won impressively by Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor-trained Bin Battuta under Christophe Soumillon after being off track 495 days.
Bin Suroor said: “That was a very good and pleasing performance and we were quite hopeful because he had been working well after his break.”
“We think he is a Group horse and we will step him up in grade at some stage.”
“He stays further than this and he could, possibly, be a Dubai Gold Cup horse.”
The 1000m turf handicap, was again won by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum with Australian-trained Faatinah, running on strongly to deny Irish-trained Hit the Bid. Trained by David Hayes, he was ridden by his owner’s retained jockey Jim Crowley.
A delighted assistant trainer, Ben Hayes, said: “As he has aged, he seems to have become quicker
Al Quoz Sprint the final target on the Dubai World Cup card.”
Over 1400m on the dirt track, the UAE 1000 Guineas Trial produced an unlikely, yet dominant winner in the shape of Al Hayette, who finished fast to win her second race in 14 days over the Meydan dirt, having broken her maiden over 1600m on Dec. 20. The daughter of Union Rags is bred beautifully for the surface, being out of a Hennessy mare, and is owned and trained by Ismail Mohammed, who said: “We were worried about dropping her back to 1400m, as she showed last time she is better over 1600m. In the future, she will stay further. Obviously we will go for the UAE 1000 Guineas next and perhaps the UAE Oaks later on. She is a nice filly and will appreciate the extra 200m in the UAE 1000 Guineas. We always had Dubai in mind for her but she ran well on her three starts in the UK and has continued to improve since arriving here.”
A treble for Godolphin, Bin Suroor and Soumillon appeared likely when Top Score hit the front about 350m from home in the concluding 1400m turf handicap, but they had no answer to the late challenge of Another Batt, a first UAE runner for young trainer George Scott, who is based in Newmarket, UK. Ridden by Connor Beasley, the 4-year-old gelded son of Windsor Knot is owned by Excel Racing, whose members include Southampton footballer Charlie Austin
Scott said: “That was a nice surprise, really, but he is a very smart horse and one we have always had high hopes for. We thought he was fit enough to do himself justice but we were probably hopeful of a place, rather than expecting to win.”
Click Here To Watch Singspiel Stakes Race 2019
Click Here To Watch Dubawi Stakes Race 2019
1st Dream Castle (S. Suroor,C. Soumillon ), 2nd Racing History (S. Suroor,K. Stott), 3rd Salsabeel (C. Appleby,B. Doyle), 4th Team Talk (S. Suroor,P. Cosgrave), 5th Bay Of Poets (C. Appleby,C. O'Donoghue), 6th Light The Lights (M. De Kock,O. Doleuze), 7th Escalator (C. Fellowes,S. Donohoe), 8th Furia Cruzada (E. Charpy,A. Fresu), 9th Gm Hopkins (J. Ramadhan,R. Tart), 10th Degas (M. Klug,F. Veron), 1th Deauville (F. Nass,L. Morris), 12th Key Victory (C. Appleby,J. Doyle), 13th Hornsby (S. Jadhav,M. Barzalona), 14th Settle For Bay (D. Marnane,P. Dobbs), 15th Musaddas (R. Bouresly,S. Brown), 16th Arod (D. Simcock,J. Crowley)
1st Raven's Corner (S. Seemar,R. Mullen), 2nd Drafted (D. Watson,S. Hitchcott), 3rd My Catch (D. Watson,P. Dobbs), 4th Above The Rest (D. Barron,B. Curtis ), 5th High On Life (S. Jadhav,M. Barzalona), 6th Trickbag (S. Berneklint,C. Lopez-M), 7th Ace Korea (P. Wolsley,D. Holland)
Distance: 1 1⁄2 miles (12 furlongs), Surface: Turf, Track: Left-handed, Qualification: Three-year-olds & up, Weight: Assigned, Purse: $125,000 (2017)
Credit: Pallavi Shevade pallavi.shevade@secretariatsworld.com