By Duane Fonseca -
Friday’s plaudits at Meydan Racecourse were shared equally by trainers Charlie Appleby and Bhupat Seemar, and each of their first choice riders William Buick and Tadhg O’Shea respectively, both camps enjoying a double on the nine-race card fully sponsored by logistics giants DP World.
Appleby and Buick might have had the slight upper hand, however, in that the Godolphin duo packaged the feature Dubai Trophy within their score, which was won on the line by Great Truth, who lunged in time to deny William Knight’s rank outsider Frost At Dawn (Jim Crowley) in the Conditions 1200m sprint for three-year-olds.
Buick might have made his move a shade late, with the Knight’s Frosted filly proving tough to dispose off and only just failing as Dubawi colt, Great Truth, fourth behind teammate and stable companion Star Of Mystery in the Al Wasl Stakes on January 12, powering home and finding that extra to win by a head on the line.
Third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, Starlust, trained by Ralph Beckett and guided by Hector Crouch, was a nose behind in third.
Soon after Ruling Dynasty proved his staying credentials when making it two-in-two for Appleby and Buick with a sweeping finish to land the 2410m Vazirabad Handicap by two-and-three-quarters of a length from teammate Al Nafir (Barzalona).
The evening got underway with the winner-restricted P&O Marinas 1600m contest for Purebred Arabians, which saw Jaber Bittar’s Unleashed trump his rivals by a massive 19 lengths after being unshackled in the straight by Richard Mullen, while Adrie de Vries negotiated a bit of traffic aboard Fawzi Nass’ Condor Pasa before the pair stormed home with a late kick to win the Dubai Auto Zone 1600m maiden.
The winner-restricted contest, the We One presented by DP World over 1400m on the dirt surface, witnessed Bhupat Seemar’s racecourse debutante Falcon Of Arabia go gate-to-wire under Tadhg O’Shea, with the 1600m Dubai Trade 60-85 handicap going to Musabbeh Al Mheiri and Mickael Barzalona after Mountbatten’s late sweep to deny Saeed bin Suroor’s Wild Tiger close to home.
The Seemar-O’Shea combination claimed a second success of the night after Nevershow Weakness proved again he seemingly has none as he coasted to a five-and-a-quarter length victory in the 2000m JAFZA 80-105 handicap.
Salem bin Ghadayer and Royston Ffrench enjoyed success in the 1200m DP World Logistics (70-90) handicap where Meshakel turned up the surprise winner edging favourite Mr Kafoo by a neck, while the concluding 2000m National Industries Park (70-95) handicap went the way of the father-son training partnership of Simon & Ed Crisford, for whom the favourite Intricacy scored under Callum Shepherd.
