Dubai: There was a distinct international flavour to the third Dubai World Cup Carnival meeting on Thursday with South African, Irish and British-trained horses ruling the roost.
It was left to Godolphin’s Saeed Bin Surour to prevent an overseas sweep of the six-race card sponsored by Gulf News, which he pulled off through the exciting Windohek, who narrowly scraped home in the $120,000 Xpress Handicap over 2,000m on the all-weather.
Two other locally trained horses, Satish Seemar’s Layali Al Andalus and the Ali Rashid Al Raihe-schooled Mutajare, made a real race of it with a head and a nose separating the first three home.
Bin Suroor was delighted with his charge’s determination and said: “It was a very good performance. Windhoek is a tough horse who tries all the time, never giving up. He finished well and I am happy he won.”
Winning rider Silvestre de Sousa added: “My horse had not run for a while but he responded to every question I asked him through the race.
“I am pleased that Windhoek came from a lay-off and won. He loves the surface.”
The four-year-old son of Cape Cross, a horse that Bin Surour trained to win three prestigious Group races including the Juddmonte and Queen Anne Stakes, was making his first start under the Godolphin banner having previously been raced by Mark Johnston in the UK.
While South African champion trainer Mike de Kock saddled a double in absentia, including a victory in the featured Al Fahidi Fort with the very impressive Anaerobia, there were uplifting wins for Yorkshire’s Richard Fahey and Irishmen Michael Halford and David Marnane.
Jamie Spencer, a former champion jockey in both Ireland and Britain, delivered a peach of a ride aboard Gabrial to hand Fahey his first Carnival success and in the process thwart De Kock from completing a hat-trick of wins with El Estruendoso, who was only beaten a head.
“He is not a straightforward horse at home and the whole team have done well to get him here fit and ready to produce that kind of performance,” Spencer said.
“They went a nice gallop and I was happy out the back. He has enjoyed running through rivals and won a tad cosily.”
Ireland’s Shane Foley was on top of his game as he rode a well-judged race aboard Certerach to land the GN Focus Handicap over 2,435m on turf.
Out of luck in three Carnival outings last year, Certerach was not denied this time and Foley said: “That was a much-deserved win after some good efforts in defeat last year. He stays well and has an engine so can hopefully build on this.”
Irishman David Marnane maintained his Carnival record of a win every season, when Fergal Lynch partnered Jamesie to win the Gulf News tabloid! handicap over 1,200m on the all-weather.
The jockey said: “He is a very useful sprinter and has a really high cruising speed. They went pretty quick but he was still pulling.
“He is just as good on turf so hopefully we can find a nice race for him”