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On a lovely but cool middle eastern day Jebel Ali was lit up by a sparkling double for Keiren Fallon and Dhruba Selvaratnam. The first leg was in the Jebel Ali Mile Prep which Otaared got up in the last furlong to win under a masterful Keiren Fallon ride. Step In Line under Carlos Sanchez had set a roaring pace and looked to have slipped the field until they collared him a furlong out. Dhruba said of his winner "we were worried Otaared would not stay but he just got home" and then confirmed we would see the 6year old son of Storm Cat back here in a fortnight for the Jebel Ali mile itself.Fallon and Dhruba completed a quickfire double in the feature race the Listed Derrinstown Stud Jebel Ali Stakes (prize money 500,000 AED/ £85,500) with Emmrooz who was mightily impressive. Ridden patiently he sat behind the leaders until the furlong pole when Fallon let him loose and he routed his rival leaving the international favourite Haatheq toiling in second. It was a very impressive performance and he Dhruba added "that is his last run here and he will next be seen at the Carnival", so that is something to lok forward to.
Both of these two winners were owned by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum on his own racecourse. When you arrive at the course you are invariably given T-Shirts and caps in his famous yellow colours and these were very much in evidence amongst the healthy crowd in attendance.
In the opening race which was a maiden Mureb proved too good for his rivals. Pat Cosgrave is going through a bit of a purple patch at the moment (having had a good winner at the Carnival last night) and he cleverly rode the Mubarek Bin Shafa trained horse by Elusive Quality to lead from pillar to post seeing off Redden and Lord Tiger easily. Satish Seemar, currently the leading trainer in the UAE, who trained the favourite Lord Tiger said afterwards "he should have won and we will look at the tactics after this, change them a bit and he should definitely win next time".
Doug Watson was all smiles after Hunters Glen under Pat Dobbs won the Abu Dhabi University Handicap. He said "I have not been that happy recently and a winner always gets you cheerful again". Fallon riding Shemoli was second in a tight finish.
The season's leading jockey Wayne Smith got in on the action in the Rotary Club Handicap guiding Tayyab to a relatively facile victory. For some reason in the last at Jebel Ali there is always a delay and today proved no exception with Barq managing to escape the stalls, his jockey and leaving his bridle in the stalls galloped loose down the track until he was caught and promptly withdrawn leaving Carlos Sandoval to steer the bottom weight Kight's Way to victory rounding off an extremely pleasent afternoon.
Next UAE racing is round 2 of the Carnival next thursday.
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