By Duane Fonseca
Bernardo Pinheiro, the recent winner of the People’s Choice Award for Best Local Jockey, took the riding honours at Abu Dhabi Thursday night with a treble on the six race card.
The Brazilian was bestowed with the honour during the sixth edition of the His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Horse Racing Excellence Awards at Meydan Racecourse during last weekend’s Super Saturday programme.
And it seemed to have inspired him to raise the bar further as he showed in the first three races on the capital card, two of which he won and a third in which he finished runner-up.
The evening got underway with a pair of maiden events, the first of which, the Al Bateen over 2200m, was won by Mohammed Daggash’s Ma'Aly Al Shahania, who found extra under Pinheiro in the final 200m, during which he zipped past Ibrahim Al Hadhrami’s Rajel Al Cham (Ray Dawson up) and pulled clear quickly to win by three and a quarter lengths.
Pinheiro made it two in three after finishing second aboard Majed Al Jahoori’s Noufal Al Wathba, who took the runners-up spot behind Ernst Oertel’s defending UAE Champion Jockey Tadhg O’Shea driven AF Rami in the 1400m Al Khaleej maiden, which the Khalid Khalifa Al Nabooda homebred won by six and a quarter lengths.
Pinheiro’s second triumph was achieved with Qaiss Aboud’s Bant Al Emarat, who held off Abubakar Daud’s Mujahed BR (Marcelino Rodrigues) by a length and a quarter in the 1400m Wathba Stallions Cup (Pvt Owners) handicap.
Rodrigues, also from Brazil, denied earlier, found the winning luck he needed in the Al Nahyan 1600m handicap on the back of AF Rasam, for who the finish came in time as the 6yo AF Al Buraq entire claimed a second-straight victory over the surface, having won last week over a 1400m trip. It turned out to be a second winner of the evening for Al Nabooda and his chief trainer Oertel.
It was all going Pinheiro's way and he included the feature Al Karamah 1600m in his tally which he won with Musabbeh Al Mheiri's race favourite Zafaranah, who finished a length and a quarter ahead of AF Kal Noor.
Ismail Mohammed and O'Shea combined to land the only Thoroughbred contest on the card, the 1400m handicap with Nibraas Passion, who finished ahead of Morghom.
