Dubai: Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, may have had a relatively quiet week at Royal Ascot so far, but it’s never too late to pick up a prize or two on the final day of British racing’s most prestigious racing festival on Saturday.
Shaikh Hamdan looks to have three lives chances on the day.
The first of which is with the lightly-raced Khairaat, who appears ready to step up to Listed company in the Wolferton Handicap, a race that Shaikh Hamdan won two years ago with the John Gosden-trained Mahsoob.
The second of these is Tasleet, who takes his chance in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, Royal Ascot’s most prestigious sprint which Shaikh Hamdan had the pleasure of winning back in 1996 with the wonderful Atraf.
Tasleet, who races out of Derby-winning handler William Haggas’ Somerville Lodge Stables in Newmarket. Landed the Group 2 Duke of York in really impressive fashion, despite not having the best of passages.
Haggas has been patient with the four-year-old who won three of his five starts as a juvenile and said of his chances: “He’d struggled on soft ground as a two-year-old so if anybody listened to me before he went to York I sadly put them off. I’d always tried to avoid it (soft ground), but he looked to relish it at York.
“Whether the cheek pieces had something to do with it, which is very possible, and he’ll have them again, he looked quite a good hand. I wouldn’t mind a bit of give, but I think the drop back in trip suited him more.
“ He had a bad injury which took an age to recover from last year. It was a shame to miss the summer having won the Greenham.
“He’s a lightly-raced four-year-old and I think there’s more to come.”
Beside the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Khairaat, Shaikh Hamdan is also represented by Muntazah, who races out of the Shaikh Hamdan-owned Kingwood House Stables and trainer Owen Burrows.
The former, a son of outstanding sir Shamardal, produced a career-best effort when making all to win a 10 furlong handicap at Chester in May.
Muntazah has raced below par on his last three starts and will need to show a lot of improvement if he hopes to make an impression in what looks a very strong race.