Top weight Mashaaref wins feature race

Dubai - Seven-year-old leads from start to prevail by a length and a quarter

 Champion trainer Musabah Al Muhairi saddled top weight Mashaaref (Dane O'Neill up), to land the 1,400m TB Rated Conditions feature of the second race meeting at Jebel Ali racecourse on Friday.
The race was highlighted with a quartet for the stables of the leading international horse owner and breeder Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance as well as a treble for top Irish jockey Dane O'Neill and a double for the grandstand handler Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
With only six runners that have been confirmed for the feature of the afternoon, O'Neill put the seven-year-old home-bred son of Cape Cross on top gear to lead right from the start and held on very strongly to prevail by a length and a quarter across the line with Need To Know finishing second and behind them came Shamaal Nibras.
"It's a great start to the season," said trainer Al Muhairi later. "There's no specific plan for Mashaaref at this early stage of the season. We will keep him in training and send him to any suitable race whether at Jebel Ali or Meydan before the Carnival," he added.
O'Neill completed a double for himself and a treble for his employer when he partnered Nawwaar to glory in the second feature of the afternoon, the 1,200m TB Handicap which was also sponsored by Shadwell, the European operations arm of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, but this time it was for trainer Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
In the fourth race, O'Neill teamed up with Al Raihe to bring Mushakis home to win the 1,400m Arabian Scandinavian Insurance Company-sponsored TB Handicap which was easily won by Mushakis in blue silks of Shaikh Hamdan.
The five-year-old gelded son of Shamardal broke very quickly from the stalls and set a steady pace to open up a gap of more than six lengths ahead of stables companion Sahra Al Khadira (Doug Watson/ Sam Hitchcott).
Early in the afternoon, Patrick Dobbs rode Ostaad to a convincing victory to land the 1,800m Al Shafar Investment TB Handicap, the second race on the card.
Royston Ffrench teamed up with trainer Hilal Al Alawi to win the opening round of the 1,200m PA Maiden Shaikh Hamdan/ Emirates Breeders Society Challenge and champion jockey Richard Mullen won the final race aboard troublesome lad Hamurabi for the Zabeel Stables' handler Satish Seemar.