Oertel has the edge in capital’s final meeting
Four trainers locked in battle for season’s championship
Abu Dhabi: The capital’s flat-racing season comes to an end on Sunday night with four trainers battling for the title, which looks all set to go to the wire.
Only the race meeting at Jebel Ali next Friday and the Dubai World Cup on March 30 remain.
Tonight’s feature race is the Group 1 Emirates Championship for Purebred Arabians and Oertel, who has some very strong chances in the first three races of the evening, has veteran Fryvolous running against half a dozen runners owned by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs. Eric Lemartinel and Gillian Duffield saddle two runners each in the 2,200-metre contest on Turf.
Majed Al Jahouri, who saddled a 1-2-3-4 in last week’s Group 1 Liwa Oasis for Shaikh Mansour, once again saddles four runners, including the likely favourite Jarnin and top-rated Ghalib and Musharab.
Duffield’s Tzar Du Paon faces a tough test, as does the Jaci Wickham-trained Kareem W’rsan.
The concluding race on the card is the Group 3 Abu Dhabi Championship, a 2,200m contest worth Dh370,000, which also wears an open look.
Satish Seemar is responsible for Concordat and Malthouse, while Ali Rashi Al Raihe must fancy his chances with Derbaas, who on his last start in Abu Dhabi in December last year won the Group 1 National Day Cup.
Doug Watson’s Jutland is also expected to garner a lot of support. The ultra-consistent six-year-old son of Halling has not been out of the frame in all 10 of his UAE starts.
Reiging UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea will aim to get the evening off to a strong start when he partners a trio of strong contenders for Oertel in the meet’s first three races — Bedayer Al Asayl, Richlore and Najm Alemarat.
Meanwhile, Yazan looks the one to beat in the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival’s Wathba Stud Farm Cup.
Trained by Anthony Manuel at Al Ain, the five-year-old French-bred horse has already scored twice in this series, which is held at every Abu Dhabi meeting and is aimed at encouraging privately owned horses. Yazan is owned by Ahmad Hareb Mohammad Hareb Al Otaiba.
