Cladocera cruises home

“We were drawn nine so the tactics were pretty much decided for me,” said the winning Belgian jockey Soumillon.

Hunter’s Light, ridden by James Doyle, took the top honours at the Meydan on Thursday night. — Supplied photo

Dubai: Cladocera was eased to a comfortable victory in the 1800m Balanchine Gr-2 (turf) under Christophe Soumillon to become the third to win both Cape Verdi and Balanchine after Sun Classique and Sajjhaa, at Meydan on Thursday night.

“We were drawn nine so the tactics were pretty much decided for me,” said the winning Belgian jockey Soumillon.

Elsewhere, Hunter’s Light (Saeed bin Suroor/ James Doyle) cruised to a record-breaking victory in the 2000m Dubai Millennium Stakes (Listed) on turf to book a spot in the lineup in the 1800m Jebel Hatta Gr-1 on the Super Saturday en route to the $6m Dubai Turf FreeGr-1 on the Dubai World Cup night.

French trainer Erwan Charpy was delighted to see Manark putting on a splendid performance under Paul Hanagan, to smash a small field of seven runners and beat Bigg N Rich by more than nine lengths to land the 1400m Purebred Arabians Bani Yas Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum City – District One (Group-2), the opener on the card. Raced by Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and UAE Minister of Finance, the six-year-old was well beaten by Sha’red in a Group-3 event in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

 Richard Hughes was onboard Caspian Prince when Dylan Thomas reversed places with earlier conqueror Hototo in the second race, a 1000m TB Handicap (turf).

Layl earned his American trainer Doug Watson another success after the Street Cry’s horse held on very strongly in the hands of regular partner Patrick Dobbs to drop his head first across the line.

The combination is enjoying a prolific domestic season, as well as an excellent Dubai World Cup Carnival, and completed a double with the victory of Storm Belt in a 2000m dirt handicap. The meeting concluded with a 1400m turf handicap, won by Dark Emerald recording his second 2015 success for trainer, Brendan Powell and jockey Richard Mullen.