Dubai: Emirati handler Salem Bin Ghadayer’s best season just got better when he won the Dh500,000 Jebel Ali Stakes on Friday with the ever-resilient Monsarrat.
A tough campaigner, who was previously raced by Mark Johnston in the UK, the five-year-old son of Poet’s Voice hit a purple patch when he sprinted clear of his rivals to land the feature race, one of three Pattern races held at the Jebel Ali Racecourse each season.
A while later, it was the turn of National Stables-based Helal Al Alawi to grab his share of the spotlight following Shillong’s impressive victory in the Dh500,000 Jebel Ali Sprint, the last of the track’s three Black Type races.
Monsarrat’s performance stood out, given the fact that this was his first start at the hilly track following a series of races on the dirt at Meydan.
Clearly loving the surface, Tagh O’Shea’s mount was never headed as he pulled away approaching the line to score by six lengths from Galles, the mount of Xavier Ziani, with favourite Shamaal Bibras as well beaten third for Patrick Dobbs.
“We know that he has capable of winning, but somehow he has not been running up to expectation so far,” said Bin Ghadayer. “So we decided to bring him to Jebel Ali and see if he gets on well with the track. Obviously he did. That was a very impressive performance.
“He’s a nice horse to have in the stable and we’ll look at some similar races for him before the end of the season.”
Meanwhile, there were also nice wins for veteran Dubai-based trainer Erwan Charpy with Aleko in the Al Shafar Investment handicap and leading UAE trainer Doug Watson, with Tale of Fire in the Commercial Bank of Dubai Handicap.
