Raging Creek to win feature race at Jebel Ali today

Dubai: Raging Creek, smashing winner of last season's Jebel Ali Sprint, makes his seasonal debut in today's feature race at the Jebel Ali Racecourse.

Racing starts at 2.30pm and features a competitive six-race card.

Ten runners, led by Raging Creek, will line up to contest the Shadwell-sponsored conditions race which is named after Invasor, recent winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. The race carries a day's best purse of Dh110,000.

A seven-year-old by Storm Creek, Raging Creek showed promising late-season form earlier this year to nail back-to-back wins at the Jebel Ali Racecourse.

He won the prep race for the Sprint in the middle of February and followed it up with a 2 1/2 length thrashing of Safsoof, a month later, in the feature race.

Trained at the Jebel Ali Racecourse, by former UAE champion Dhruba Selvaratnam, Raging Creek is reportedly fit and ready for today's contest. His target for the season will be a repeat shot at the Jebel Ali Sprint.

Among his nine rivals the Musabah Al Muhairi-trained Machynleth appears the main danger.

Machynleth was in action in the season opener at Nad Al Sheba last week where he narrowly failed to rein in Seeking An Alibi, going down by a short-head in the six-furlong event. He will be ridden by Wayne Smith.

The support race of the meeting is the 1,600metre Shakhee handicap sponsored by Shadwell.

Six runners have been declared for the closing race of the afternoon including Channel Four, a two race winner at this venue last season, and his stablemate Blazing Ability who strung together an amazing sequence of four wins during the 2004-2005 season, at the same racetrack.

Trained by reigning champion trainer Doug Watson Channel Four looks capable of continuing from where he left off earlier this year when he won over a mile in quick succession.

Watson has his horses in top condition and the six-year-old son of Gold Fever will take all the beating, even if the main threat appears to be his stable companion Blazing Ability.

A seven-year-old by El Prado, Blazing Ability raced just four times last season and was unable to reproduce the explosive form he displayed in the early part of 2005 with his quartet of wins.

Earlier in the afternoon Transonic, a three race winner last season, is taken to win the Purebred Arabian race which kicks-off the race meeting.

Better Mix, who runs well at the Jebel Ali track can land the Haafidh handicap for Watson while Satish Seemar's Scotchman looks the pick in the maiden.