20 years and still going strong

Celebrating its 20th season, Jebel Ali open their turnstiles for the new campaign on Friday and while the declarations look a little thin on the ground there's no denying the racing is going to be ultra competitive.

The feature race is, as usual, the third on the card and worth a whopping Dh90K! Not bad, bearing in mind the low levels of prize money elsewhere in the world (mentioning no names... the UK).

Over the minimum 1,000m trip, Erwan Charpy, who had a winner on the opening meeting of Jebel Ali's season last year, seems well represented with the course and distance winner Satwa Street. Owned by Khalifa Dasmal of Dream Ahead fame, the 5-y-o has bags of speed and could get the master of Green Stable off to a good start. She Wants, however, representing the same yard, makes her debut in the Emirates and hasn't raced since last December but has plenty of wins in her native Brazil.

Not the best yardstick

The form in South America is often a little questionable but this 6-y-o mare has speed in abundance having won over 4 furlongs and her trainer is looking forward to unleashing his new charge: "She has been working all right but been off the track for a while so I expect her to improve for the outing. She was very consistent in Brazil and It will be very interesting to see how she performs, but this is a different ball game compared to the races she contested back home, so we'll see." Commenting on the same stable's Satwa Street, Charpy added: "He has been doing very well, but is quite a stuffy horse who should improve for the outing."

Grandstand Stables boss Ali Rashid Al Raihe will be hoping to secure another trainers' championship and saddles Zain Shamardal in the fourth race. Formerly handled by Brian Meehan, the 3-y-o colt looks a very interesting recruit to racing in the Emirates and is the choice of stable jockey Royston Ffrench.

You have to give credit where it's due and I'd like to offer a massive well done to Saeed Al Mazroui who showed he is a rider to keep a very close eye on after out-riding Jamie Spencer on Mutual Force in the Thoroughbred race at Abu Dhabi last Sunday. The Emirati partnered two winners to success last term, ironically both on the same day at Jebel Ali, but has been given plenty of time to get fit and gain valuable experience and tuition from Ffrench who has been a great help in his achievements so far. A summer in South Africa has clearly done him no harm also! And I'm not afraid to say that this chap is much tidier and stronger in a finish than Ahmad Ajtebi was at the same stage in his career.

TWO TO FOLLOW

One final note, I had a chat with Satish Seemar yesterday and the master of Zabeel and Millennium Stables was keen to tell me of his excitement for Ibn Al Nafis, who should be seen at the end of the month, and Kaiss was also given a very good mention. Remember, you heard it here first!