Treble delight for Beasley at Jebel Ali Racecourse

Connor Beasley claimed his 19th winner for the season with a treble at Jebel Ali Racecourse on Saturday, a haul that included victory in the feature Union Day Stakes, aboard Ahmad Bin Harmash’s Delorean, who went gate-to-wire in the contest over a mile.

It was one of two wins for in-form trainer Harmash, who believes the four-year-old Time Test colt could bloom into a tough miler at the ‘hill’ where he is two wins from three starts this season.

Mohamed Al Ahmed, General Manager of Jebel Ali Racecourse, congratulated UAE’s leadership on the occasion of 52nd National Day.

Underscoring the nation’s remarkable journey of growth and advancement, Ahmed said: “This momentous moment stands as a testament to the visionary leadership of the founding fathers, who instilled in the UAE the values of unity, resilience, and a steadfast commitment to progress.”

“Great pleasure to have a race meeting on Union day and it was one of the special race events for me. There was lot of activities for the general public. We try to bring new shows and activities to the racecourse. Introducing new shows and activities to the racecourse is a fantastic initiative. It not only adds excitement to the overall racing experience but also broadens the appeal of the event to a diverse audience.

“14,000 race goers were in attendance which means a lot for Jebel Ali Racecourse as this reflects our popularity.

“To mark this special day, we honoured Emirati trainers and Emirati journalists for their outstanding work for many years,” he added.

Breaking from the innermost gate, Beasley led Delorean to the front and made the most of his position along the rail from where he was able to fend off a sustained challenge from Salem Bin Ghadayer’s The Attorney (Xavier Ziani), who kept the pressure on the leading pair until the line.

Beasley rode Delorean to a two-and-three-quarters of a length win in a course and distance handicap two weeks earlier and, giving his mount a nudge with just over 400m to run, was able to pull clear from The Attorney with relative ease and win by a length-and-three-quarters.

The Ismail Mohammed-trained multiple course and distance winner Justice Protecol was a further two-and-three-quarters of a length behind in third under Jose da Silva, while the Michael Costa-trained favourite Mersaal settled for fifth under Ben Coen.

Beasley struck first in the only Purebred Arabian race on the card, the 1971 Audi Cup, a 1400m maiden, aboard Abdallah Al Hammadi’s Maddah Al Reef, who led at every post first and remained unchallenged as he went on to score by a massive seven-and-a-half length margin from AF Alhazem, trained by Ernst Oertel and ridden by defending champion Tadhg O’Shea.

Beasley’s second trip to the winners’ enclosure involved a successful outing with another Harmash trainee, Rasas, who found winning luck on his third career start in the Year of Sustainability Stakes sponsored by CBD, a maiden for two-year-olds over 1200.

Ghadayer’s Velvet Cactus (Ziani) set the pace, with an exuberant Rasas taking over at the 400m pole before kicking clear to win by four-and-three-quarters of a length from Condor Pasa (Fawzi Nass/Adrie de Vries), with Rasas’ stablemate Bismilah Alik (Gabriele Malune) a further length back in third.

Like Harmash, Costa also hit the target twice, winning initially with Mozahim (Coen), who found plenty late on to deny team-mate and stable companion Laa Baas (Jonathan C Mateus) on the line in the Seven Emirates Sprint Stakes (0-90 hcp, 1000m), and later with Zaammit (Coen) obliging in the 52nd Stakes sponsored by Bin Dasmal (Hcp 0-75, 1600m) which was won by four-and-three-quarters of a length from Kaifan (Ghadayer/Ziani).

Jockey Ryan Curatolo added to his tally when putting the 2nd of December Stakes 1400m maiden sponsored by Al Shafar to bed early aboard the Musabbeh Al Mheiri-trained Haasim, who easily thwarted a late charge from Watch My Six (Fawzi Nass/Sam Hitchcott).

Having hit the crossbar twice, Ghadayer finally struck when Attribution landed the card-ending Ghaf Tree Stakes (Hcp 0-85, 1600m) after a strong ride from Royston Ffrench saw the six-year-old son of Competitive Edge do enough to deny joint-favourite Eljenob (Costa/Coen) by a length-and-a-quarter.