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Godolphin win 10th Zabeel Mile after Seas Masters turf

Godolphin win 10th Zabeel Mile after Seas Masters turf Jan 20, 2023

By Duane Fonseca

Winning the Group 2 Zabeel Mile turned out to be a case of all round number crunching as Master Of The Seas’ triumph in the turf event, the feature of Friday night’s Dubai World Cup Carnival card, brought Godolphin a tenth success in the race while delivering a fifth win for jockey William Buick and a fourth win in the last five runnings for trainer Charlie Appleby.

Additionally, Buick opened his carnival account with the win, which also turned out to be the recently crowned 2022 British Champion Flat Jockey’s 150th UAE winner. Better still, when it came to timing, Buick zipped across the finish, lowering the time for the 1600m turf trip at Meydan by clocking 1:34.28, which was tad quicker than the 1:34.47 he recorded aboard Valiant Prince 11 months ago.

Buick and his 5yo gelded Dubawi partner sat behind the pace set by teammate and stable companion Modern News, the ride of James Doyle, and pounced 300m from home to go well clear quickly. David O’Meara’s Shelir gave chase under Daniel Tudhope, but the pair could only reduce the margin to a half length. A further three and three fourths back in third was Michael O’Callaghan’s I Am Superman, the ride of Colin Keane.

It was the first of three back to back wins for Godolphin, who also enjoyed success with Shining Blue and Global Heat, both trained by Saeed bin Suroor.

The undercard witnessed the first Classic contest of the season, the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas being won by Mimi Kakushi, trained by Salem Bin Ghadayer for His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum.

Bin Ghadayer won the 2020 renewal for the same owner with Down On Da Bayou and he now has another top candidate to bring him a second success in the race after Mimi Kakushi, who lost her maiden  tag in the UAE 1000 Guineas Trial a month back, romped home in the 1600m contest on dirt.

A daughter of City Of Light, Mimi Kakushi took matters into her own hands and dominated the field of six from the start before kicking clear in the straight to win by four and a half lengths from Awasef, trained by Doug Watson and ridden by Sam Hitchcott. A further five lengths back was Unjokable for Ahmad bin Harmash and Ray Dawson. 

That win brought up a double for Bin Ghadayer and Barzalona, who had earlier won the Virgin Radio Dubai 104.4 1200m handicap on dirt 1000m with Rawy, who denied the Watson schooled Pat Dobbs driven Colour Up by three fourths of a length.

Godolphin’s second of the night was delivered by Bin Suroor’s Global Heat who burst through under Pat Cosgrave to scorch his rivals in the other Listed affair of the evening, the 2810m Al Khail Trophy presented by ARN. The pair won by a length from Ismail Mohammed’s Away He Goes, with Barzalona up.

Godolphin closed with a treble following Tudhope’s victory aboard Shining Blue in the Dubai Eye 103.8 1400m turf handicap, which brought the curtains down on the night.

Bin Harmash and Dawson were the other trainer-jockey pair celebrating a Thoroughbred winner on the night after Thunder Of Niagara powered home along the centre of the track to turn up the shock winner of the ARN 1000m handicap, the second event on a card, which got underway with the inaugural Big Easy Arabian Sprint Championship, a 1200m conditions run that saw trainer Majed Al Jahoori and jockey Bernardo Pinheiro make history with Leena.

 


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