Ffrench cashes in for Oman with rousing Jebel Ali win

Dubai: Five Cents, owned by the Royal Cavalry Oman, ran an absolute blinder under Royston Ffrench to win the Derrinstown Stud-sponsored feature race at Jebel Ali Racecourse yesterday and initiate a meet double for champion trainer Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

A five-year-old son of former Australian sprinter Exceed And Excel, Five Cents was notching his fourth win at the track. Ffrench gave him a great ride and just touched off the Satish Seemar-trained Escape Route by a quarter of a length in a rousing four-horse finish.

Jebel Ali specialist Otaared, ridden by resident jockey William Buick, finished strongly to take third with Spirit Of Battle a battling fourth. Only a nose separated the two runners.

Al Raihe was back in the winner's enclosure after saddling Sharaayeen to win the Emirates Airline handicap under a confident ride from Richard Hills. The double took his tally for the season to 31, five clear of his closest challenger Doug Watson, who earlier in the afternoon sent out Classic Blade to land the Al Shafar Investment Handicap with the help of a fine ride by former UAE champion jockey Ted Durcan.

Seventh win

Brazilian-born jockey Silvestre de Souza, who finished runner-up in the 2011 British jockey's championship, notched his seventh win in the UAE when partnering the Rashid Boursely-trained Trophical Blue to win the Arabian Scandinavia Insurance Company-sponsored maiden.

Resident Jebel Ali handler Dhruba Selvaratnam was not denied his share of success, although he was kept waiting until the final race of the evening for it before Tesslam won the Frayland handicap under Buick.

Earlier in the afternoon Jaci Wickham won her third Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum UAE Breeders Society Challenge trophy with Maymoun W'Rsan, a quarter length winner over stable-companion Kareem, W'Rsan.

Both horses have won in previous runnings of the Breeders Society Challenge this season.