3 minute read

The 25th Anniversary of this great race day was one of mixed emotions.

There were cheers from the home team when Tadgh O'Shea steered Secret Ambition over the line for Sateesh Seemar and with a 6 lengths margin over another local, Golden Goal from Doug Watson's yard with an American raider Avant Garde in third for Gustavo Delgado and Luis Saez. 

More cheers this time from the Brits as the Mark Johnston trained Subjectivist sailed over the line in the Gold Cup with veteran jockey Joe Fanning in the irons.  And quite a few more cheers from the Europeans as Walderbe ran second under the only female jockey riding on the card, Mickaelle Michel.  They were on 33/1 and the third home Away He Goes 50/1.  The winner set a new course record.

The Americans usually have the best sprinters and this was true yesterday when they won both sprint races.  The Al Quoz on the turf went to Extravagant Kid trained by American Brendon Walsh and ridden by Irish jockey Ryan Moore.  Godolphin – bin Suroor's Final Song ran very well to finish second with Christophe Soumillon riding and then third went to Acklam Express 40/1 for the Brits.

Godolphin usually produces the Derby winner and this year it was the turn of their Rebel's Romance with the Appleby-Buick team.  They finished 5 ½ lengths ahead of Panadol who continued his good run and New Treasure, another Gosden-Dettori runner, finished third just ahead of the Japanese runner Takeru Pegasus under Ryan Moore.

The tears came in the Golden Shaheen.  In one of the worst possible scenarios to happen on a racktrack Zenden won the race in course record time and then went amiss just after the finish, dumping jockey Antonia Fresu in the process.  Fortunately the jockey was OK but unfortunately not the horse who had to be euthanised.  This really put a pall over the whole evening.  For the record Japanese runner Red Le Zele, again with Ryan Moore riding, ran a great race to finish second and Doug Watson's Canvassed ran third.

Only one of the Lords finished in the first three and that was Lord North, Gosden-Dettori, who was 3 lengths ahead of Japanese runner Vin de Garde 16/1 with Mickael Barzalona on board.  Marco Botti's Felix was third on 33/1 with Oisin Murphy riding.

There was another new course record in the Sheema and as expected this was the race of the meeting.  Mishriff, under David Egan, gave John Gosden his second winner of the day and added to his win in the Saudi Cup.  It was a fabulous finish with Mishriff duelling with the two Japanese girls Chrono Genesis and Loves Only You down the straight with the finish being in that order and only a neck and a neck in the margins.  Probably all three broke the previous course record.

The Cup itself looked as if they didn't want any Italian jockeys in it:  Frankie Dettori's mount Great Scot escaped and did a couple of laps of the course and that meant out, and then Antonio Fresu's mount Military Law got under the gates and also did a couple of laps of the course and then was out.  Both horses and jockeys were OK.  So that left the way clear for Michael Stidham to saddle his first overseas winner for Godolphin, favourite Mystic Guide with Luis Saez riding.  Japanese runner Chuwa Wizard continued the run of seconds for Japan (there were 4 of them) and Andre Fabre's Magny Court was third under William Buick.

Not a vintage Cup nor a vintage program but there was some good racing and apart from the Zenden tragedy some very interesting horses on view.  It was great that a number of the jockeys donated their riding fees to the local charity – their equivalent of Riding for the Disabled.

Full credit to the staff who kept us well informed all the way through with interviews and videos etc for those of us who would have liked to be there but were prevented by COVID issues.