Dubai: Irish jockey Connor Beasley’s first season in the UAE just keeps getting better and better.
The County Durham jockey picked up his fourth winner when he partnered Brabbham to a comfortable victory in the 1950-metre Shadwell Farm Conditions Stakes, the feature race of the afternoon at a festive Jebel Ali Racecourse on Friday.
After racing in mid division for most of the distance, Brabbham, a seven-year-old son of top Darley stallion Bernardini, changed gears like the legendary Formula 1 champion, John Brabham, that he is named after, with two furlongs to run.
Once Beasley found the momentum he was looking for in his horse, the pair easily picked off the leader, Resonant, and crossed the finish line 1 ¼ lengths in front.
“I liked the way he galloped all the way to the line,” said the Irish rider. “Every time I asked him for his effort he was always digging deep and I had no doubt that he would get there.”
Beasely, 23, who is based at Ahmad Bin Harmash’s Al Aasfa Racing Stables, was delighted with the way his career has been shaping since he arrived in the UAE.
“I’m very thankful to everybody for giving me the support and long may it continue.”
Meanwhile, the Doug Watson juggernaut continued to roll on following his four-timer at Meydan last weekend, when the champion trainer saddled a double with two Mohammad Khalifa Al Basti-owned horses.
After Denzille Lane, formerly trained by Mark Johnston in the UK, led for most of the 1600-metre trip to win the Al Shafar Handicap, jockey Pat Dobbs deployed similar tactics aboard the lightly-raced Igloo, to win the Al Rammal Engineering Maiden over seven furlongs.
Patrick Cosgrave, who like Beasley is having a great season, continued to lead the jockey’s table when he brought home his 12th winner of the season, aboard the Ali Rashid Al Rayhi-trained Kasb.
A winner of the feature race at this track on the opening meeting of the 2017-2018 UAE racing season, Kasb was making it two of two for the former champion trainer.
However, unlike his previous victory, Kasb needed to dig deep for jockey Dane O’Neil to win by the proverbial whisker, or as they say in horse racing parlance, a nose, from the runner-up Yalta.
Both horses waged a ding-dong battle from the two furlong post with the lead changing hands a couple of times before O’Neill prised out just that little extra in the last-gasp finish to claim victory from Royston Ffrench’s mount.
