No Road Bloc as Refai, Chavez win first leg of Emirates Sprint Series

By Duane Fonseca

Osama Refai and Oscar Chavez have won the first round of the Emirates Sprint Series: the Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup over 1200m at Sharjah with Road Bloc finding absolutely no traffic and going full throttle all the way to the finish to win the Conditions run by a length and a half.

Incorporated as part of the series, the Conditions race’s distance had been dropped from 1700m to 1200m and Road Bloc’s triumph has guaranteed him an automatic starting spot in the Listed Jebel Ali Sprint over a 1000m trip on 11 March. He can now bid for the Dh250,000 bonus that is reserved for the winner of both legs of the series.

Refai’s was the those that asserted themselves from the start and Chavez spared no effort as he rode him hard virtually throughout to win with fellow rookie conditioner Julio Olascoaga’s Upper Class taking second in the hands of Jose da Silva. A further five and a half back in third was Royston Ffrench on Meshakel trained by Salem bin Ghadayer.

Yas Xmnsor brought up a second winner of the afternoon for trainer Khalifa Al Neyadi and Saif Al Balishi after taking the equally-valuable HH The Crown Prince of Sharjah Cup without much fuss, denying a fighting AF Marmuq who could only finish three fourths of a length back as the runner-up under UAE Champion Jockey Tadhg O’Shea in the PA Prestige event over 1200m.

A neck behind in third was Boraq El Medam, also trained by Al Neyadi and driven by apprentice Qais Al Balushi.

The Al Neyadi-Saif Al Balushi partnership yielded fruit earlier on the card with Desert, who won the 2000m maiden for 4yo and older UAE bred horses, with which last Sunday’s truncated card resumed. Zajer Al Wathba was next to score winning the 1700m maiden for UAE bred 4yos for trainer Jean Claude Pecout following a well-timed ride by Fernando Jara.

One of the more exciting finishes was witnessed during closing stages of the Palma Springs 2700m handicap where Salem Al Ketbi’s Kadar was ridden hard by Richard Mullen during his match-race with Abdallah Al Hammadi’s On Cue, the ride of Pat Cosgrave, and went on to win by three fourths of a length, with third placed Idris Des Arnets a distant 11 behind.

On Sunday, the ERA decided to postpone racing on account of weather conditions after the first race on the card, a 1200m handicap, had been won by Irfan Ellahi’s JAP Al Afreet ridden by Mullen, who also completed a double in the process.