The famous blue and white silks of Sheikh Hamdan were dominant at Jebel Ali’s second meeting of the season on Friday, carried to victory in four of the five Thoroughbred races on the card.
He actually won every race in which he was represented and, on three occasions, supplied the first and second.
A close third, over 1600m at the first Jebel Ali meeting a fortnight ago, the Doug Watson-trained Ostaad and Pat Dobbs gained compensation with a smooth success in an 1800m handicap to set the ball rolling.
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The owner’s retained jockey, Dane O’Neill, was second on Sefri but was on the right one in each of the next three races, including on Mashaaref in the featured 1400m conditions race.
Trained by Musabah Al Muhairi, O’Neill’s mount won the same race in 2013 and was winning on his seasonal debut. Not to be left out, Ali Rashid Al Raihe provided Sheikh Hamdan and O’Neill with their other two winners. First up was Mushaakis, the very easy winner of a 1400m handicap.
He was chased home by the same owner’s Sahra Al Khadra, trained by Watson, before Nawwaar denied the Al Muhairi-trained Fityaan in a 1200m handicap.
Like Ostaad, both Mushaakis and Nawwaar had run well at the first meeting of the season, at Jebel Ali, two weeks earlier.
O’Neill said: “It has been a great afternoon, both for the boss and myself. I was pretty hopeful coming here this afternoon as I knew I had some good chances but a treble is very satisfying.”
Dane O’Neill having an absolute blast in Dubai. Damn.
— Al Maktoum Race Club (@YouTips4) November 13, 2015
The finale, a 1200m maiden, went the way of the Satish Seemar-trained Hammurabi, ridden by Richard Mullen.
The meeting had opened with a 1200m maiden, the only Purebred Arabian race on the card and won by AB Jalad, having his third career start and first on dirt.
A second winner of the season for trainer Helal Al Alawi, he was guided home by Royston Ffrench.
