Dent de Loup rediscovers winning racing form

What a difference a year or two makes! Veteran Arabian campaigner Dent de Loup franked his 1997-98 form to win the feature race at Nad Al Sheba on Thursday night even as absent New Zealand trainer Graeme Rogerson claimed an important first UAE win for the Southern Hemisphere.

Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum also staked a share of the spotlight by scoring his second successive flat-racing victory shortly after his retained jockey and reigning UAE champion Ted Durcan completed a compelling hat-trick.

Sheikh Rashid, who won his first ever flat race just two weeks ago astride handicapper Martello Tower, confidently repeated the feat in a Limited Conditions race for Amateur riders. He is now likely to aim for a hat-trick of wins in the category.

But the undisputed star of the night was the nine-year-old Frenchbred Arabian Dent de Loup. Showing no signs of wear and tear despite being subjected to seven demanding racing seasons in the UAE, the son of Blaise dominated the six-horse field to win the Dh120,000 mile and a quarter race from start to finish.

Singlet, ridden by John Carroll was second and Durcan's Nyatih third, while favourite Falina des Fabries could only finish fourth for big race jockey Richard Hills.

Perfectly at home in top class races of this sort Dent de Loup, whose last win came at the expense of Tahar de Candelon and Falina des Fabries in the first leg of the 1997-98 Maktoum Challenge, proved that he is not yet ready to turn it in.

Julian Smart, who has trained Dent de Loup for the last seven years, praised his resilience. "He has a huge heart," said the Abu Dhabi based trainer. "He hardly ever runs a bad race and on his day he can trouble the best.

"I've always said that if you have five to six horses of Dent de Loup's quality, you don't need others. What more can I say except that he's special."

Smart indicated that, given Dent de Loup's return to form, he might be tempted to run him in the Maktoum Challenge for a record 18th consecutive time.

"He's really brought our season around," said Smart who trains at HH The President's Stables in Abu Dhabi. "We've been struggling a bit but with the wins by Ganie de Carrere on Wednesday and Dent de Loup, we're getting back on track."

Also discovering their niche in the competitive UAE racing circuit were the recently arrived string of horses from the Southern Hemisphere.

On Thursday Dubai Down Under led home a noteworthy trio of SH bred three-year-olds to hint at better things to come for some of the breed who were auctioned at October's Pearls of Dubai sale. 

"It's good to get the monkey off our back," said Ray Pettersen, assistant trainer to Rogerson. "This has not been an easy exercise. We've been almost completely out of luck the last six weeks, but we never lost faith in the ability of our horses.

"Winning the first, second and third places is a better result that we could have dreamed, but we weren't all that surprised at the way Dubai Down Under ran. He's a really nice horse who won both his trials in New Zealand before shipping to Dubai. He had a slight setback prior to the sales, but he's recovered nicely and hopefully we can win some more races with him. I don't want to sound too confident but I think Early Assault, Dubai Dancer and Victreebel will win sooner or later."

Amidst all the excitement for the connections of Dubai Down Under, Durcan quietly and efficiently sealed his first hat-trick of the season, two of them in the new all-black colours of Sheikh Rashid - Cable Media Boy and Clodion. The third win came aboard the Jaqi Wickham-trained Countless.

Earlier top trainer Paddy Rudkin pulled off a surprise win with Royal Dance in a 16-runner handicap sponsored by Dubai Police. Michael Hills rode the winner to tie Durcan for the top spot with 11 wins apiece.