Skysurfers soars high

The race is named after the Godolphin miler Firebreak who won a back-to-back Godolphin mile on the Dubai World Cup nights.

However, Dettori denied the partnership of De Kock-Soumillon a treble when Musir just failed and finished close second behind the Godolphin raider. Imbongi, under Kevin Shea, finished third and behind him came Bankable under Ryan Moore.

Rakaan, ridden by Ted Durcan, made it a winning reappearance for trainer Jamie Osborne in the 1400m Thoroughbreds handicap, the opening race on the card. The four-year-old gelded son of Bahamian Bounty raced against the fences and was always going well before he made a smooth progress to hit the front and storm home impressively in the concluding stages of the race. Frankie Dettori, who showed the way with the Satish Seemar-trained Montmorency, finished second and the French filly Ayun Tara came third under Gregory Benoist.

Champion jockey Christophe Soumillon did everything right to land the 2200m handicap Dubai Casthouse Trophy second race of the night aboard the Mike De Kock-trained Hunting Tower ahead of the Godolphin quartet.

All eyes were on the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Once More Dubai, under Frankie Dettori, who started a clear-cut favourite to win the race. But the E Dubai horse missed the break and settled at the tail of the compact eight-runner field for no good reasons. And contrary to early expectations, the horse refused to improve when asked the question in the home straight before being eased close home. Hunting Tower who was perfectly poised behind the speed responded keenly and quickened to lead close home.

The partnership of De Kock-Soumillon completed a back-to-back double after top weight Golden Sword won the 1900m Thoroughbreds handicap third race on the card in great style. Having dropped to the back of the field when the starter said go before he made a steady progress to win as he liked when the pack hit the home straight. The Belgian jockey didn’t need more than to shake the reigns and the five-year-old son of the Epsom Derby champion High Chapraral sprinted home impressively to prevail by more than two lengths.

Somoullion registered a hat-trick after the Belgian teamed up with trainer Robert Cowell to bring Prohibit home in the 1000m Thoroughbreds handicap Dubal Trophy fourth race of the night.

The six-year-old gelded son of Oasis Dream was drawn wide, but Soumillon moved very quickly to the centre of the track as the horses left the stalls. Royston Ffrench took the public choice Happy Dubai to the front but he was soon tackled by the mount of Gary Carroll, Invincible Ash. The Invincible Sprint mare looked like a winner with less than two hundred metres remaining but Ptohibit did the better work when the horses went strike for strike on the line.