Ramp And Rave out to break jinx

Dhruba Selvaratnam will be hoping to break an annoying pattern when he runs his star sprinter Ramp And Rave in today's feature race at home, the Dh100,000 Jebel Ali Sprint Prep. Ramp And Rave, easily one of the most enduring horses in recent UAE racing history, has not won a race since his most famous victory in the Dubai Shaheen Classic on March 28, 1999.

More surprisingly he has never won at Jebel Ali, a track on which the six-year-old son of Ramplett has trained week-in and week-out for the past three years. But Selvaratnam is reasonably confident Ramp And Rave can reverse the trend when he takes on five other aspirants seeking to find the right form in today's prep race ahead of February's Dh350,000 Jebel Ali Sprint (Listed).

The field includes top notch sprinters Flight Pattern, Kharir, Moonis, Mile High and Holy Pole. Of the lot the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Kharir and Satish Seemar's Moonis have both tasted success at Jebel Ali this season, while the New Zealand bred Flight Pattern, an impressive winner at Nad Al Sheba last December, makes his debut at the demanding track. Mile High and Holy Pole complete the field.

Mile High, trained by Paddy Rudkin, is better suited to grass. But the seven-year-old son of Puissance two ran forward races at this course early last year, once finishing a close third to Jalaab over seven furlongs and on another occasion haning on for second place, eighth lengths behind Hataab.

Karir is a spirited type who appears to like the Jebel Ali hill, as evidenced by his recent one and three quarter length victory over Archive and Moonis. One of the Machiavellian son's six UAE wins also came at Jebel Ali two seasons ago where he also placed twice at the same course.

Moonis began his 2000-01 campaign with a victory over Kharir at Jebel Ali in November, but disappointed in his subsequent starts. In his last run the five-year-old Green Desert son could only manage fifth place behind Mutamayyaz at Nad Al Sheeba.

The Greame Rogerson-trained Flight Pattern is the second highest rated runner in the field at 100, but will have to improve upon his last outing fourth to Mutamayyaz if he aims to make an impression in today's race.

Going by current form Kharir looks like the one they will all have to beat while Selvaratnam will be hoping that Ramp And Rave will revive his best form and end his Jebel Ali drought. McLaughlin will be looking to saddle Martello Tower to an unprecedented fifth consecutive victory this season when he runs the Mr Prospector colt in a six-horse 0-90 handicap.

Martello Tower is the horse that carried Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed to three splendid victories in amateur races this season and has the form to remain unbeaten. Elsewhere Yajree can give Selvaratnam victory in a 0-80 handicap should he outsprint Seemar's twin entries Khafaaq and Marawis, and Paddy Rudkin's Royal Dance.