Double delight for Seemar in season-opener at Meydan
Satish Seemar got his campaign off to a flying start by saddling winners in the first two races in the opening race meeting of the season at the Meydan racecourse on Thursday.
The Zabeel Stables trainer sent Barack Beach to take the opener under stable jockey Richard Mullen and was back in the winner’s enclosure after Connor Beasley, atop Way Of Wisdom, triumphed for Seemar 35 minutes later.
Mullen had Barack Beach racing prominently in the first three before going clear on the home stretch in the newcomer’s race for two-year-olds run over the 1,200-metre distance.
The result also puts the Daredevil colt into early reckoning for the UAE 2000 Guineas Trial.
Mullen revealed assistant trainer Bhupat Singh and “the boss” had told him that the horse hadn’t done a lot at home.
“They left him short for the trial and you can see he’s clearly improved an awful lot from that,” he said.
“He’s a horse that naturally knows his job. Hopefully we can try and conserve his energy going forward because he’s also got a lot of natural speed, and if we’re going to think of going down the Guineas route, he’s has to conserve it.”
Seemar’s bid for a treble ended when Zalmi Star had to be scratched after it became fractious and threw down Mullen before the start of the third race. The Ahmad bin Harmash-trained newcomer Woodditton under Beasley was an impressive winner of that prize.
“It was a good performance for a horse as a starter,” Beasley, who is the retained jockey for Bin Harmash, said in completing a quick double. “The team and the boss holds him in high regard. Tadhg O’Shea who rode him in a trail, because I wasn’t here then, told me the horse gave him a nice feel.”
Sandro Paiva atop Ali Rashid Al Raihe’s Secret Tide pipped Patrick Cosgrave on Grand Argentier at the post for the jockey’s first winner at Meydan.
“Obviously I’m very happy for the connections and my first win at this track,” said the winning jockey.
“We were outpaced early in the race and had a lot to catch up on the home stretch. This horse kept running towards the end and got home in the last strides. He showed lot of courage and character.”
Sayed Hashish was the other to celebrate a double on the night after Mark Of Approval followed by Way Of Wisdom’s victory in the second race in the owner’s silks.
Antonio Fresu produced a late challenge on Mahmood Hussain’s Lemon Drop Kid gelding to go past Fabrice Veron on board Moqarrar. “He surprised us tonight with a good performance,” Hussain said on his first thoroughbred winner.
“He’s coming off an injury and has been working well at home.
“However, this came out of the blues. I expected him to run well, because he’s a good horse. After this run, I would like to think he’ll do well this season.”