Charlie Appleby may not have been present at Meydan Racecourse on Friday to see his colours carried to victory in two of the feature contests, but he must have been celebrating wherever he was as his gallopers continued to dominate the Dubai Racing Carnival.
With his ever-dependable stable jockey William Buck in the irons, Great Truth bounced off a fourth-place finish in the Al Wasl Stakes to land the Dubai Trophy in telling fashion.
In doing so the Godolphin-bred son of Dubawi handed Breeders’ Cup aspirant Starlust, trained by esteemed Hampshire-based handler Ralph Becket, a second successive Carnival defeat by runners from Appleby’s Marmoom Stables.
However, it did not come on a platter as Buick had to dig deep aboard Great Truth to deny the William Knight-trained filly Frost At Dawn by a head, with Starlust hanging on for third with just a head and a nose separating the first three across the line.
“He probably needed that run slightly,” said Buick of Great Truth’s previous start. “This was a similar sort of race but he’s probably more of a seven-furlong horse than a six-furlong horse.
“He goes through the early part of the race fine but you can see others have a bit more toe than him. Nevertheless, he has a great attitude.”
Buick and Appleby also landed the main supporting race, the 2410-metre Vazirabad Handicap (Presented by DP World) which was won impressively by Ruling Dynasty.
Stablemate Al Nafir led until the final 100metres but Ruling Dynasty had enough in the tank to wear him down for a two and three-quarter lengths victory,
“Charlie put blinkers on him just to help him focus and it worked,” said Buick. “When Al Nafir went clear down the back I didn’t think he would stop but we picked him up well in the end.
“He is a decent handicapper. Let’s see if he can take any of this form back to the UK.”
Former UAE champion trainer Bhupat Seemar did not allow Appleby to completely dominate the spotlight as he combined with stable jockey and ten-time UAE champion Tadhg O’Shea to complete a double of his own.
The first came with Falcon Of Arabia who made an exciting UAE debut when taking out the We One Presented by DP World (Conditions Race)
The son of Speightstown, a $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale purchase, took control of the 1,400-metre race on the inside rail and held Argentina raider Auto Bahn by a length and a quarter.
“He has to be nice to do that first time,” said O’Shea of the Falcon Racing Team-owned colt. “He has a nice temperament, a good pedigree and he was very professional.
“He was getting a weight pull from the top horse [Auto Bahn] but he’d had a run and we hadn’t.”
Seemar added: “The Bastikiya is only two weeks away but they’re only three-year-olds once so we might have to talk to connections and look that way.”
Seemar and O’Shea would return for more success when Nevershow Weakness won the Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) Presented by DP World (Handicap) in compelling style to complete a hat-trick of wins for Zabeel Stables.
“I just kept my nose in there so the door wouldn’t close,” said O’Shea. “The horse making the running stayed off the rail and my horse is very straightforward and doesn’t have to lead.
“He’s quietly surprised us as he just goes through the motions at home, but he loves the dirt and is still on the up.”
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