WATSON BACK WITH A BANG AT MEYDAN
Doug Watson may have missed out landing the big prize on the night but the reigning UAE Champion trainer left an indelible mark in the opening race meeting at the Meydan Racecourse on Thursday.
Watson, bidding for a seventh UAE Champion Trainer title, broke his Jebel Ali duck by saddling hat trick of winners in his backyard.
The Meydan Racecourse has been his favourite, so to speak, and the American showed that, landing the Emirates Skywards with Syncopation, Arabian Adventures with Big Brown Bear and Emirates Airline with Stunned.
Meanwhile, the feature race of the evening, with a prize purse of Dh 210,000, was meant to be a battle between Watson, who had four runners and Sandeep Jadhav, who had three. But it was the Ahmed bin Harmash-trained New Trails, piloted by Connor Beasley, who won the emirates.com run over 10 furlongs.
Watson’s Street Of Dreams was second, two lengths behind, while Dehbashi, also trained by him, was third. Watson, who had gone winless in the opening race of the season at Jebel Ali, saw George Buckell pilot Syncopation to victory in the Emirates Skywards, the second race of the night.
Mears, saddled by Ali Rashid Al Rayhi and ridden by Ronan Whelan, had led at the start but apprentice jockey Adam McLean put Ticket Holder in charge as the 12 runners took the bend.
Syncopation timed his surge well by going on the outside to win by two lengths over Ticket Holder, in the contest run over eight furlongs. It was Syncopation’s second win in 15 starts with his first also coming at Meydan, where he won a Maiden race run over 1400 metres, under Sam Hitchcott, last March.
Watson then notched his double with Big Brown Bear landing the Arabian Adventures run over seven furlongs. The three-year-old from Tiznow, with Patrick Dobbs on the mount, beat Solar Shower, ridden by William Lee, by five lengths. It was his maiden victory in four starts.
Satish Seemar’s Beachcomber Bay, the ride of UAE Champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea, finished third, 1.25 lengths behind Solar Shower.
Watson and Dobbs partnered again to lead Stunned to a brilliant win in the Emirates Airline run over six furlongs.
Stunned, the experienced sevenyear-old from the top quality Shamardal, winner of the St. James’ Palace Stakes, quite literally stunned the field and flayed them to win by 4.5 lengths over Speedy Move, the mount of Richard Mullen and trained by Seemar.
Speedy Move made a valiant attempt to catch Stunned at the fag end but the latter had enough legs on for his fifth victory in 30 starts.
Ahmad bin Harmash’s Rocket Power, ridden by Hitchcott, was third, 3.25 behind Speedy Move.
Earlier, Walking Thunder got the Meydan season off to a scintillating start by winning the Emirates Holidays run over seven furlongs.
Trained by Ahmad bin Harmash and ridden by Connor Beasley, the two-year-old unraced colt from Violence, won by a whopping 5.25 lengths over Takhteet, saddled by Sandeep Jadhav and the ride of Royston Ffrench.
It was a landmark win as it was a first for the newly-formed Phoenix Ladies Syndicate.
Every Single Day, trained by Watson, with Dobbs onboard, was third in the race, 7.5 lengths behind Takhteet, in what was a fivehorse field.