Gulf News

Lemartinel, Seemar pull out all stops

HH THE PRESIDENT CUP SEES BOTH TRAINERS MOB-HANDED

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rainers Eric Lemartinel and Satish Seemar are set to saddle as many as 13 runners between them in separate raids on the Purebred Arabian and thoroughbr­ed version of the HH The President Cup at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club today.

In the Group 1 Purebred Arabian contest worth Dh3 million, five of the dozen declared runners are trained by Lemartinel for President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan with champion jockey, Tadhg O’Shea, electing to ride Mahbooba, winner of the course and distance prep three weeks ago.

“She is a very nice, young mare who seems to be improving all the time,” said O’Shea. “This is a strong race, as you would expect for the money but we are certainly expecting a big run from her. I think Loraa and Sniper De Monlau could be the main dangers.”

The team’s second string would appear to be Abu Alabyad, the mount of Gerald Avranche, second in the prep but winner of this race in 2015 and second last year.

Mahbooba has only suffered one career defeat and that was at the hands of the aforementi­oned Sniper De Monlau but she also beat him twice last season.

Trained by Helal Al Alawi, Sniper De Monlau tends not to run in a straight line on the home turn and drifts markedly to the outside rail. He did so in each of his five Abu Dhabi starts last season and, perhaps less so, at Al Ain when winning his seasonal return.

Royston Ffrench, who has ridden him in each of his four most recent outings, is again assigned the task of trying to keep him straight.

Richard Mullen rides Loraa, trained by Jean de Roualle, and another runner nominated by O’Shea as a big danger.

A Group 1 winner in France, she has only had two starts locally and was third, behind Mahbooba, in the trial.

Tricky dilemma

Mullen, in his role as stable jockey to Satish Seemar, faced a very tricky dilemma in the 1400m Listed version of HH The President Cup with the yard responsibl­e for half of the 16 runners. The jockey, understand­ably, has opted for Akeed Champion, twice a course and distance winner this season, including the prep three weeks ago.

Dhruba Selvaratna­m introduces Haalick to local action and the mount of Chris Hayes looks an interestin­g new recruit.

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