Mirza Al Sayegh, Shareef Al Halawani and sponsors pose for a picture after the press conference. Al Khaleej

Jebel Ali Racecourse will stage its eighth meeting of the season on Friday with a seven-race card, which is highlighted by Derrinstown Stud-sponsored 1950m for Thoroughbred.

The fourth race on the card carrying a prize purse of Dhs115,000 has attracted a quality field of 16 runners.

This is the second meeting of the Jebel Ali Racecourse’s season following the temporary suspension in December last year over the concerns by jockeys on the ‘kickback’ issue.

Jebel Ali marked the return of racing last week with their biggest race of the season, the 1600m Group 3 Jebel Ali Mile.

Mirza Al Sayegh, Director of the Office of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, said: “Sheikh Hamdan has expressed his delight over the return of racing at the Jebel Ali Racecourse. It’s pleasing to see Jebel Ali will return to its glory days and continue to be a popular racing venue for jockeys and trainers.”

Sayegh also hailed the Jebel Ali team-led by Shareef Al Halawani, manager, who worked overtime to fix all the issues.

Halawani said: “We are happy to see the fans back at the racecourse.”

Trainer Nicholas Bachalard is relieved that the work done on the track is to the satisfaction of everybody concerned, especially the jockeys and trainers.

“We addressed the situation in the best possible way and formed a team that comprises track experts.

 “We removed some of the top soil and replaced it with red sand from Al Ain, which is the same sand that we used to build our new training track at Jebel Ali,” he added.