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Malthouse well poised to win

Malthouse (Satish Seemar/Richard Mullen) will be eyeing the Thoroughbreds version of the Abu Dhabi Championship at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club here on Sunday.

The five-year-old gelded son of Green Desert faces the starter in the Dh370,000 TB Group-3 event which is contested over 11 furlongs with a competitive field of nine runners making the line up for the prestigious competition.

A course and distance winner in this race Prep three weeks ago, Malthouse cruised to a comfortable three lengths victory over today’s rivals Mantoba and Mulaqat, he will equally be hard to beat in the renewal.

Jebel Ali-based trainer Dhruba Selvaratnam saddles Abu Dhabi debutant Dormello, the choice of the stables’ jockey James Doyle. Having finished respectable third to Anatolian over a longer distance at Mrydan, the Dansili’s horse will go close.

Doug Watson’s duo Jutland (Patrick Dobbs) and Dr Faustus (Dane O’Neill) will pose the immediate threat to Malthouse fortunes.

Jutland, a previous winner over distance and course will be facing a tough test but the six-year-old son of Halling could trouble the leaders, should he manage to reproduce the same performance when was narrowly beaten by Quick Wit last time out.

Meanwhile, Jarnin (Royston Ffrench) looks good to land the Arabian version of the Abu Dhabi Championship Group-1 for the Watba Stables’ handler Majid Al Jahouri in the colours of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, at the same venue early in the evening.

Al Jahouri who scooped most of the Arabians Group-1 events of the season is well represented in the race. Ahmed Ajtebi will reunite with Rasikh, a good second to Jarnin in a Conditions race over the same distance at the same venue before they were both well beaten by Nieshan (Gerald Avranche) in the 2000m Al Maktoum Challenge R-3 Group-1 at Meydan last time out.

Al Asayl Stables’ handler Ernst Oertel who’s showing the way in the trainers’ championship table saddles in this race Fryvolous (Tadhg O’Shea) and must be looking forward to see the former champion returning to form on this occasion.

However, Oertel has some good runners in the other races which could provide him with at least two winners to enhance his lead over the competition’s standings list with only two races remaining, apart from the Dubai World Cup night which includes only one Arabian event.