Toulouse: Norwegian amateur jockey Victoria Allers fondly praised her horse after Nahee stormed to victory in the sixth round of the HH Sheikha Fatima Bin Mubarak World Ladies Championship at the Hippodrome de Toulouse on Friday night.
Trained by Jean Pierre Totain in France, Nahee may have been making only the second start of his career but he showed plenty of ability to outclass his rivals and come home a convincing winner.
A five-year-old son of Bibi de Carrere, Nahee won in the colours of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and Minister of Presidential Affairs, the patron of the Purebred Arabian series that aims to promote the breed in Europe and the rest of the world.
“Nahee is a great mare and he was always surprising me,” said a delighted Allers who secured the sixth spot in the grand finale of the world’s richest ladies horse race to be held in Abu Dhabi later in November.
“She was full of running when the starter said go. She did all the hard work. I had the easy part, which was to keep her settled behind the leading horses and going in the right direction. And when I asked her the question in the straight she picked up impressively and won very well.”
The winner covered the mile distance in 1.44.35 seconds and prevailed by more than two lengths before being eased near post.
The race were held under the directives of the Shaikh Mansoor as part of the HH Shaikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival.
Later in the evening top French jockey Jean-Baptiste Hamel partnered Sir Bani Yas to win the fourth round of the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup.
The four-year-old son of Amer was settled at the tail end of the compact field as stable companion Abu Alabyad set a steady pace under Jean-Bernard Eyquem before the Frenchman pushed the button to emerge the easiest of winners.
Sir Bani Yas — who is owned by the UAE President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan — won by a length and a quarter from Qatari raider Al Saklawiya.
Trainer Jean-Francois Bernard commented: “He’s a progressive kind of horses and there’s more to come from him. Sir Bani Yas is a tough battler and strong stayer and we expect to show the best of him in the big challenges ahead.”
However, the Frenchman declined to set a target for his colt saying that everything depended on how he would come out of the race while maintaining their were many options for him.
“We are at the beginning of the season, but the big race on [Dubai] World Cup day would be one of the obvious targets,” he said.
