Imperial Empire one of three winners at Meydan for Satish Seemar

Twelfthofneverland and Record Man also first past the post for Zabeel Stables trainer

Tadhg O’Shea on Imperial Empire (far side) holds on to win from Adrie de Vries atop Kanood at Meydan. Courtesy Dubai Racing Club

Satish Seemar warmed up for the Dubai World Cup Carnival next week with a hat-trick of wins at Meydan on Saturday.

The Irish apprentice Nathan Crosse rode Twelfthofneverland for his first winner before Tadhg O’Shea completed the three timer for the Zabeel Stables trainer aboard Imperial Empire and Record Man.

Crosse produced a late run to pip Sandro Paiva on Karnavaal by a neck over the 2,000-metre trip on the dirt surface.

O’Shea on Imperial Empire held on to win from the Adrie de Vries-ridden Kanood by a nose and then produced a well-timed run on Record Man in the next, both on the turf.

“A very nice performance for a horse that hasn’t run for a long time,” O’Shea said of the former Godolphin inmate Imperial Empire, who was returning to the track for the first time in more than 470 days.

“He’s a beautifully well-bred horse as you can imagine as an ex-inmate of Godolphin. Obviously we’ll take him home and let him get over his exertions. I think going forward you can see better effect from him over seven furlongs.”

It was the Dubawi gelding’s first local start after winning once in five attempts on British soil when trained by Charlie Appleby.

A switch to turf did the trick for Erwan Charpy’s Spirit Of Light. The Dark Angel colt under a beautifully timed run from Clement Lecoeuvre took the opener to break his maiden tag in the seventh attempt.

Lecoeuvre racing close to the inside rails held him behind the early leaders before moving out to challenge Antonio Fresu on Le Factor to win by length-and-a-quarter.

“We always thought, on his pedigree, the turf would be better for him but there was not a lot of turf races for him to race here,” Sayed Hashish, the winning owner, said.

“This was his first race on the surface and we also tried the blinkers because he didn’t go strong before. He got distracted.

“He’s versatile and hasn’t run that badly on the dirt surface. He’s always ran well and finished in the top five. However, I was convinced he is better on turf and today he showed his capability on it.”

Godolphin’s Bright Start lived up to his name when making all under Pat Cosgrave to make a winning start at Meydan.

Drawn in Gate 1, Cosgrave had him bowling along the near rails and take the shortest way home for a convincing win over Zero To A Hundred by seven-and-three-quarter lengths.