Abu Dhabi: The feature event — Group 3 Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup over 1,600m — was dominated by Al Asayl Stables as trainer Eric Lemartinel had a one-two-three finish at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club on Sunday.
RB Burn was firm favourite but it was stunned for the second time in back-to-back races and had to be content with second place as stable companion Darius Du Paon stole the show. Hamza was a neck away in third place.
Tadhg O’Shea aboard Darius Du Paon clearly timed the run to perfection after it looked like Gerald Avranche and RB Burn would be first to the finish after managing to get past Hamza, who tried valiantly to make all under Jesus Rosales.
“He is a lovely big horse who ideally wants further but we knew there would be a good gallop which helped me, especially receiving so much weight from RB Burn,” said a beaming O’Shea adding, “With that fast pace and the weight difference my horse has probably outstayed the second who, to be honest, I thought would be very hard to beat but it is a great result for Al Asayl, Eric and the whole team.”
In the 1,600m Listed National Day Cup, the only Thoroughbred race on the card, Pat Cosgrave led Hawkesbury to fine win after early leader, Montataire ran out of gas with just over 200m out. A gap opened up at the rail and Cosgrave ensured that the Satish Seemar-trained grey gelded son of Shamardal was setting the pace thereafter till the finish.
“That was only Hawkesbury’s fourth start for us and he was an excellent second in the prep here three weeks ago.
“It was a tough choice for Richard and Eavesdropper could not get a run, but Hawkesbury was well drawn in three and Pat has given him a great ride, waiting for that gap on the rail,” said assistant trainer Bhupat Seemar.
Stable jockey Richard Mullen will be little disappointed here as he choose to ride the 10-year-old Eavesdropper, who finished 12th of the 16 runners, and it allowed Cosgrave his 13th winner of the season.
“He is a very nice horse and we will look towards Meydan and the Dubai World Cup Carnival with him,” added Seemer.
Cosgrave speaking about his showing said, “Hawkesburg ran very well in the prep and has obviously improved with that run under his belt. He can hang to the right so I was keen to get to the rail on him and, luckily, the gap opened when I needed it.”
Mullen, however, was compensated later as he handed Satish Seemar his second winner by guiding Extra Hope to clinch the Wathba Stallions Cup. The win also denied O’Shea, on AF Mulhifa, a double for the night.
“It is always great to ride a winner in these colours for Ali Haddad who is such a great supporter of racing here in the UAE.
“I won on this filly at Al Ain just last Friday ago when she did it easily but that was over 1000m and the extra 200m, on turf was a bit of a doubt coming here but she did that nicely. She has a lot of natural speed and did well to get across to the front from our draw. Hopefully there is more to come,” said Mullen.
There was double for Ernst Oertel as well when Antonio Fresu made all on AF Sharesah to take the opener and Connor Beasley won the last race on ADF Maher, beating Hamares.
