Seachantach finally gets a win

The seven-year-old son of Elusive Quality claimed his first win since 2010 when he was four, the time he made his UAE debut during the Dubai World Cup Carnival for trainer David Simcock. And after a couple of poor appearances, he was transferred to the stables of Satish Seemar, but he didn’t show any signs of improvement.

His best effort was when he finished second to Mannjal at Jebel Ali in a handicap event over 1200 metres. Then he was raced everywhere around the UAE without much success. He took part in nearly 30 contests at Meydan, Jabel Ali and Abu Dhabi and the result was the same every time.

The second feature, a 2000m TB Al Basti Cup Handicap (turf) was brilliantly won by Jawhar (Doug Watson/ Paul Hanagan) in a bone-crushing finish against stable companion Dr Faustus under Patrick Dobbs. The two mates went strike for strike in the concluding stages and Jawhar just put his nose to win by a short-head. Specific Gravity was half a length back in third for the partnership of Mike De Kock and Christophe Soumillon.

“It makes no difference for me. When I saw my two horses leading, I was delighted to have one of them ahead of the other or they could have even finished dead-heat,” a jubilant Red Stables handler Doug Watson said later.

“Dr Faustus is owned by the Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and has been with me for quite a long time. I’m pleased to see him returning to form. He won over a longer distance in Abu Dhabi three weeks ago. Manawar is the horse of Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance, and I’m happy to have a winner for him. Shaikh Hamdan has always been supporting the stables and hopefully he will improve to become a Carnival horse next season,” Watson added.

Dubai Iconic travelled nicely under Richard Mullen to see off early leader Hajjan (Musabah Al Muhairi/ Paul Hanagan) and sprinted home unchallenged. Maath Gool came with a late run to finish third.

Dane O’Neill teamed up with Emaar Stables handler Abdulla bin Huzaim to end the Midnight Moon’s drought in the 2200mTB Bailey’s Cup maiden, the opening race on the card which has attracted full field of 16 runners going to post.

In the final race, a 2200m Hygain Handicap (tapieta) was easily won by Ukrainian (Ali Rashid Al raihe/ Royston Ffrench.