It is another busy weekend of racing with today’s (Thursday) Al Ain meeting the first of four consecutive days of racing, highlighted by the rearranged Al Ain Mile Prep with nine set to face the starter, including RB Smokin Rich.
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The choice of Tadhg O’Shea, he is one of three in the race for trainer Salem Al Ketbi who also saddles Burj Khalifa, to be ridden by Richard Mullen and Najm Alemarat under Shane Karlsson.
Speaking from Dubai Airport yesterday, on his way to ride in Qatar, O’Shea said: “They are three nice horses and a case could be made for each of them.
"RB Smokin Rich was impressive when winning over 1,400m at Al Ain last November and has won twice over 1,600m on turf at Abu Dhabi.
“On dirt, 1,600m is probably at the top end of his stamina scale but he worked well the other day.”
Should the Al Ketbi trio fail to fire, Ghadeer, to be ridden by Dane O’Neill for Ali Rashid Al Raihe, Its Far From Over, trained by Omar Daraj and the mount of Pat Dobbs, and Silvestre De Sousa’s mount, the Majed Al Jahouri-trained Haajeb, look the most likely to take advantage.
The action then moves to Jebel Ali on Friday for their third and final feature race of the season, the 1,000m Listed Jebel Ali Sprint.
Eight have been declared with the majority of the focus squarely on Muarrab, trained by Musabah Al Muhairi for Sheikh Hamdan.
Unsurprisingly, the owner’s first jockey Paul Hanagan chooses him over stable companion Fityaan, the mount of Dane O’Neill, also retained by the owner.
Hanagan’s mount has raced seven times at Jebel Ali, suffering his only defeat at the track on his first visit, over 1,400m.
He has since won four times over 1,200m and twice over the 1,000m course and distance of this race, including when leading all the way in the official prep race a fortnight ago.
Hanagan said: “He just loves it at Jebel Ali and produces his very best there.
He has won both his outings at 1,000m and was very impressive in the prep two weeks ago.
“Hopefully, he is the one they all have to beat.”
That would certainly appear to be the case considering he was conceding weight to his nine rivals on that occasion and meets his rivals here on level weights.
Fityaan was second in this race in both 2012 and last year. It would not be the biggest surprise were he to fill the same spot again.
He chased home Take Ten last year, one of two previous winners of the race to be saddled by Satish Seemar, who also has the 2011 victor, Spin Cycle, in this year’s renewal.
The Doug Watson-trained Kilt Rock is another horse who has been second in this race, in 2013, as well as finishing third in 2012 and fourth last year.
He has been off since the middle of January and has had a wind (breathing) operation since.
Morawij, trained on the track by Dhruba Selvaratnam for racecourse patron Sheikh Ahmed, chased him home in the prep, without ever really threatening to beat him.
Stable jockey Oisin Murphy again rides and said: “Obviously, Muarrab is the one we all have to beat but my fellow has been running well and the yard are in good form.
“Hopefully, something will take Muarrab on for the lead and give us something to aim at in the closing stages.”
