Dubai: A dramatic final day hat-trick helped Saeed Bin Surour snatch a fourth trainer's championship at the 2011 Dubai International Carnival on Thursday.
The Godolphin handler began the day two wins behind former Carnival topper South African Mike de Kock, but he clinched the trophy when Ted Durcan accounted for his third win of the evening aboard, Honour System.
Bin Surour finished on 16 winners against De Kock's 15, and also helped Godolphin secure the leading owner title with 19 successes.
However, Godolphin were narrowly denied a sweep of the three championships at stake when stable jockey Frankie Dettori finished one win short of Christophe Soumillon who rode 11 winners at the ten-week extravaganza.
Bin Surour said he was delighted to win his fourth title but stressed that the "job was not yet finished".
"It's great to be the leading trainer at the Dubai International Racing Carnival, and all credit goes to the team we have at Al Quoz," he said. "Their contribution is invaluable and I could not have achieved this without them.
"However, the season is far from over and we must now translate our Carnival accomplishments into successes at the Dubai World Cup meeting. That has been the focus all season and we are really looking forward to doing well at the big meeting on March 26. The horses are fit and ready and we're hoping for some good results."
Soumillon, who was winning his first Carnival title, said: "I was really looking forward to doing well in Dubai but I really did not expect this. It feels fantastic to be champion jockey at such an event.
"But I was privileged to ride some very fine horses and all credit to Mr Mike de Kock and his great team."
Godolphin finished the Carnival strongly winning four of the meet's seven races, including the two featured events — the Group 3 DRC Gold Cup with Whispering Gallery and the Group 2 Zabeel Mile with Rileyskeepingfaith.
The former has earned himself a shot Europe's premier staying events following his 2 1/4 lengths victory in the DRC Gold Cup, a two-mile marathon.
"He stays very well and we will try him in good company in Europe to give him a chance to prove himself," said Bin Surour.
"He needs to improve again but hopefully he can."
Whispering Gallery was the middle leg of Bin Surour's treble, the trainer having earlier struck with Emirates Champion in the Dubai Duty Free Gold World Cup.
‘Lightly raced'
The trainer commented: "Emirates Champion is lightly raced and hopefully there is more to come," bin Surour said. "He is improving all the time and hopefully can continue to do so."
However, it was Bin Surour's co-trainer at Godolphin, Mahmoud Al Zarouni, who bagged the biggest prize of the night when Rileyskeepingfaith landed the $250,000 (Dh918,275) Zabeel Mile.
Given a super-confident ride by Emirati jockey Ahmad Ajtebi, the son of Hunting Lion upstaged some high quality rivals to post a 2 1/4 length victory that has earned him a ticket to the Dubai World Cup meeting.
Al Zarouni said: "He was staying on in his races over 1,200 metres so we wanted to try him further. This looked a good opportunity and hopefully we will be back for the Godolphin Mile (Group 2) on March 26)."
In other races South African speedball J J The Jet Plane won his trial for the Al Quoz Sprint while Britain's Steele Tango prevailed in a photo-finish over Enak to deny Bin Surour wghat would have been a fourth success of the night.
