Dubai: Godolphin’s Maftool has earned himself a crack at next month’s UAE Derby (G2) after showing plenty of guts to repel the challenge of South African-trained Mubtaahij in an exciting renewal of the UAE 2,000 Guineas at Meydan on Thursday.
Bred in America, the son of Hard Spun was reversing the result on Mubtaahij who had beaten him in the UAE 2,000 Trial four weeks ago, a race in which he fluffed his lines after breaking badly.
Ridden by former two-time British champion jockey Paul Hanagan, retained jockey to the horse’s owner Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, the winner made no mistake this time as he put in an exciting display to notch his first success on dirt.
“We might look at another race for him, perhaps on Super Saturday, but the plan is the Derby,” Bin Surour, who was winning the race for the fifth time said. “He was very brave today and fought off a horse who is improving with every run. It was not an easy race, but full credit to him and his jockey who rode a perfectly judged race.
“We always knew that he was a Classic type of horse and the Derby was the obvious target. We’ll see how he comes out of the race and then finalise our plans for Super Saturday.”
Hanagan said: “He’s always had a tendency to get too relaxed and be slowly away but they have done a great job with him at home.
“I got there a bit sooner than I would have wanted to, but you can’t afford to play other jockeys on this surface.”
Meanwhile Reynaldothewizard lived up to his name when delivering a magical performance at the age of nine to win the Group 2 Al Shindagha Sprint from fellow veteran Krypton Factor.
The Satish Seemar-trainee was ridden confidently by Richard Mullen to hold off Krypton Factor, who like ‘Thewiz’ has won the G1 $2m Dubai Golden Shaheen in the past,
“He’s so special and to see him win like he did makes me and all the team at home so proud,” said Seemar.
“He’s not getting any younger, so we’ll put him away for now and get him ready for the big race (Golden Shaheen) on World Cup night.”
The third Group race on the card, the Firebreak Stakes was won by Tamarkuz, with Hanagan once again doing the honours in shaikh Hamdan’s colours.
