UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea picks up two more wins in prep race for President Cup

Jockey follows up last week’s four victories with double that included President Cup Prep for Purebred Arabians onboard Mahbooba in Sunday night’s six-race card, writes Amith Passela.

Tadhg O’Shea rode Deyaar in the third race and Mahbooba, above, in the fourth race to victory on Sunday night at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club. Ravindranath K / The National

ABU DHABI // Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club has been a happy hunting ground for UAE champion jockey Tadhg O’Shea.

He followed up last week’s four victories on the track with a double that included the President Cup Prep for Purebred Arabians onboard Mahbooba in Sunday night’s six-race card.

It took O’Shea’s tally to 29 winners before Richard Mullen, his nearest challenger for the jockey’s title, clinched the final race to close the gap to one behind by steering Akeed Champion in the President Cup Prep for thoroughbreds.

Mahbooba’s victory was her fifth in six career starts. She made a winning reappearance seven weeks ago to make it two from two for the season and head to the Group 1 race on February 12 as one of the favourites.

“She’s a high-class filly. She has been beaten only once in her lifetime,” O’Shea said of the five-year-old bay daughter of Bibi De Carrere trained at Al Asayl Stables by Eric Lemartinel.

“She’s a nice filly going forward. She’s going strength to strength although she doesn’t show a whole lot.

“She seems to love it here and Al Asayl will have a strong hand with her in the President’s Cup.

Antonio Fresu on AF Al Jahed set the pace over the 2,200-metre race. O’Shea had Mahbooba three lengths off the pace in fifth.

The order stayed the same until they approached the final bend.

O’Shea made his move by taking Mahbooba to challenge from the outside as they swept on to the 400m home stretch. He got on to the lead 250m from home to win by a length from stable companion Abu Alabyad with Gerald Avranche aboard and Loraa, ridden by Mullen.

O’Shea was in the winner’s enclosure half an hour earlier on Deyaa, another trained by Lemartinel.

“She travelled well,” O’Shea said. “We didn’t go fast because I know this filly had a lot of speed. She’s been knocking at the door for a while and thankfully she did it tonight.”

Akeed Champion made it two from two on his visits to Abu Dhabi.

He was impressive, with Mullen making it look so easy to win from Ghaamer, the 2016 winner of the President Cup.

Jim Crowley, the British champion jockey, tried to make all the running on Ghaamer, who was conceding weight all-round for his win in the Listed race last year.

He should be in contention in what looks likely to be an exciting rematch in two weeks’ time.

Fernando Jara, the 2007 Dubai World Cup winning jockey, was the other to ride a double but for two different trainers – Abdallah Al Hammadi and Musabah Al Muhairi.

The Panamanian took the opener on Sarab Al Reef and completed the double on AF Ssayeb.

He was runner-up twice in the second and third races.

Christopher Hayes onboard the Mohammed Ramadan-trained AF Mawhebah made every yard of the running to take the second race from Monawer to deny Jara and Al Hammadi – the jockey-trainer combination – a double on the night.

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