Ilaria rides Kuheilan Aafas to victory

manama — Italian lady jockey Ilaria Saggiomo on Kuheilan Aafas 1675 led a 1-2 finish for trainer Abdulla Kuwaiti in the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship race held at the Rashid Equestrian and Horse Racing Club, Manama in Bahrain on Friday.

In a close finish Saggiomo on Kuheilan Aafas 1675 finished ahead of another Kuwaititrained runner Al Hamdanieh 1637 ridden by Eva Herresthal of Germany.

The race, organised under the umbrella of the HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, was part of the meeting which also staged Bahrain’s richest races.

Wakame and Milyar won the richest races in the Bahrain horse racing calendar in the same meeting.

Along with a cash prize of BD20, 000 each, Wakame and Milyar also claimed the prestigious His Majesty King Hamad Cup for imported horses and locally-bred horses respectively.

Wakame, owned and trained by Fawzi Nass and ridden by Hasan Al Saffar, beat Vale Do Sol by half-a-length to win the race for imported horses.

Milyar, owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, trained by James Naylor and ridden by Andrew Eliott, pipped Methary by a head to win the King Hamad Cup for locally bred horses.

The spotlight was on the Festival’s Sheikha Fatima fint Mubarak Ladies World Championship race which was the second richest race of the meeting with BD15, 000 up for grabs.