UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea looking to start new season with a bang

Tadhg O'Shea atop Nashmee raced to victory in the Ajban race during the eighth race meeting at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club in Abu Dhabi on January 18, 2015. Christopher Pike / The National

Tadhg O’Shea, the five-time UAE champion jockey, is looking to pick up from where he left off last season.

The Irishman is booked for 12 rides in 12 races across two meetings when racing returns to the UAE this weekend. The first, at the Jebel Ali track on Fridayay, followed by the meet at Sharjah on Saturday.

The retained jockey of the Grandstand Stables trainer Ali Rashid Al Raihe rode 45 winners last season and finished on the podium on another 97 occasions.

He rides Skygazer in the opening race at Jebel Ali before climbing on-board Street Act in the next race. He will also ride Trinity Force in the most valuable race on the six-race card, a handicap rated 85-105 run over the minimum trip.

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“Trinity Force is a nice horse who has been working well,” said O’Shea, a long serving jockey in the UAE.

“He will improve for the run but it is an ideal race to get him going and to try the Jebel Ali surface. He might prefer a bit further in time but he goes there in good heart.”

After five rides for Al Raihe in the first five races at the Jebel Ali track, O’Shea then picks up for the Emirati trainer’s brother-in-law, Musabah Al Muhairi, on Special Boy in the final race.

“As always, I want to ride as many as possible and win as many as possible,” O’Shea said.

O’Shea also a good few spare rides coming from the Al Asayl Stables trainer Eric Lemartinel, who has some of the finest juvenile Purebred Arabians in the country.

Fortunately for him, the majority of the Al Raihe’s inmates are thoroughbreds while, it is the other way around at Lemartinel’s stable.

“I’m lucky indeed. I have been riding some of the best Arabians in the country. It certainly is a bonus to get some winners from outside the stable,” O’Shea said.

At Sharjah tomorrow, O’Shea is booked on all three of Lemartinel’s entries and all three have outstanding chances to get off the mark in their first appearance for the season.

Tawajud, placed twice in his two starts last season, offers O’Shea a decent chance in the opener, a maiden run over 1,200 metres. He then rides Hawafez in the third race and Men Alemarat in the final race.

The UAE season consists of 61 races across five racetracks, including Al Ain and Abu Dhabi, and it concludes with the Dubai World Cup at Meydan on March 25.

The action from Jebel Ali and Sharjah shifts next week to Meydan on Thursday and Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Abu Dhabi’s second meeting on November 13 is one of the highlights of the 15 meetings at the capital’s track.

It features the world’s richest race for the Purebred Arabians, the €1.2 million (Dh4.8m) Group 1 Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Crown Jewel, and the main supporting races the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak World Ladies Championship (IFAHR) and the Apprentice Championship final.

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