Four for Sheikh Ahmed, three for Costa, feature for both

By Duane Fonseca

Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's bright yellow silks dominated among the swatches at Meydan Racecourse Friday evening, an awesome foursome showing horses running under his banner are starting to show their true colours under new trainer Michael Costa.

Australian Costa was appointed to school the population at Jebel Ali Patton's base, taking over from Nicholas Bachalard in the off season. Costa has for some time now revealed a strong desire to end his Meydan hoodoo and how he would get the monkey off his back. A stunning treble signaling his own arrival in the UAE, he might not have envisioned. But if he did… why not!

Sheikh Ahmed's runners ran through the middle section of the card and Costa's first Meydan winner coincided Sheikh Ahmed's first of the night, Tahdeed landing the Mina Hamriya 1600m handicap under Dane O'Neill.

Salem bin Ghadayer brought him a second when Seyaasi ran home triumphant in the Mina Rashid under Xavier Ziani, winning the 1900m maiden by two and three fourths of a length from Mawtini who was second for trainer Marwan Al Baidhaei and jockey Adrie de Vries.

Costa trained Mouheeb scored the biggest win of the card when landing the feature Al Garhoud Sprint, a Listed 1200m affair, with a sharp dash under Ray Dawson to go a length and a half clear at the post from Bhupat Seemar's Tuz, the ride of Tadhg O'Shea. A further four and a quarter back in third was Mutaraffa for trainer Musabbeh Al Mheiri and Antonio Fresu.

Sheikh Ahmed and Costa's scoring was completed in the penultimate Mirdif Stakes by Seyouff, who showed good late acceleration under Fresu to win the 1400m conditions run by a length and a quarter from Sharp Army.

The concluding race of the evening brought a first winner for Julio Olascoaga as Ajuste Fiscal made winning look easy under Jose da Silva to win the

Jebel Ali Free Zone 2000m handicap.

Earlier, Bernardo Pinheiro scored a quick double. First, the Brazilian guided Wadheha to victory in the 1200m conditions event for Purebred Arabians for trainer Majed Al Jahoori and immediately after he brought the Ismail Mohammed schooled Barq Al Emarat home first in the Dubai Creek 1400m maiden.