REVIEW / JEBEL ALI adiyat racing plus.com 27 ADIYAT RACING PLUS ISSUE 838 Thursday 21 st March 2024 COSTA-TRAINED LAHFATY WINNING THE JEBEL ALI DISTAFF (BELOW) early but he always had enough in the tank to come home and hold off the rest of his rivals out there.” Racing got underway with the Wathba Stallions Cup sponsored by the HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Racing Festival 0-90 handicap for Purebred Arabians over 1200m, the only race for the type, which was won by Jaber Bittar’s Najih, who might have finished with just fumes left after a tank emptying performance under Omani apprentice Qais Al Busaidi, who asked for an effort at the 600m marker. The five-year-old full son of Mahabb seized the lead from AF Marmuq (Ernst Oertel/ S’Shea) with a little under 100m left to run and finished a game one length winner, with the latter’s teammate AF Layth settling for third a further length-and-a-quarter in arrears. The undercard comprised a further three Conditions events, all over the 1400m strip, including a pair of runs for three-year-olds, which kept the fillies away from the colts and geldings. With the ladies going first, it was UAE Trainers’ Championship leader Michael Costa who was seen celebrating a 36th winner of the campaign after Lahfaty’s success in the Jebel Ali Distaff. Receiving her orders from Ben Coen with less than half of the distance left to run, the daughter of Mitole picked up pace to hit the front 400m out and thereafter had only the one challenger in Salem bin Ghadayer’s Kibo Misaki (Royston Ffrench) to watch out for and she took on her assignment bravely to win with two lengths to spare. Kibo Misaki was second with Le Faucon Maltais a further two-and-a-half lengths adrift for Seemar and O’Shea. Another winner for the hosts after Lahfaty won the Distaff Daramethos’ connections collect their silverware ( ) p p y g g ,
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