23 November 2018, Abu Dhabi, UAE ~ Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club will host racing for the third time this season on Sunday, 25 November 2018, with a six-race card.

The best of the Purebred Arabian action is the concluding 1600m handicap in which O’Shea partners AF Asheham (AF Al Buraq) for Khalid Khalifa Al Nabooda and Ernst Oertel. A winner twice from six starts, once over this course and distance, he is making his seasonal debut.

“He has been working well and Ernst has his horses in very good form,” O’Shea said. “It is a competitive race, but hopefully we will be in the mix.”

For the Al Asayl team of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Eric Lemartinel, Pat Cosgrave has elected to ride Bainoona (Mahabb), thrice a winner including over track and trip. Narjes (Munjiz) and Mullen, riding for Helal Al Alawi and Yas Horse Racing Management, head the weights and look another to consider in a very tricky contest for Pick Six players.

The only Thoroughbred race on the card is a handicap over 1400m, which has attracted the maximum allowed field of 14.

Heading the weights in said affair is local debutant Fawaareq, one of two in the race to be saddled by champion trainer Doug Watson and one of three owned by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Thrice a winner in Britain for Owen Burrows, Fawaareq has been gelded since his most recent racecourse appearance, in October 2017. With a handicap rating of 90, he could prove to be a Dubai World Cup Carnival contender with a top effort. A 5-year-old homebred gelding by Invincible Spirit, he is the first foal from his unraced dam, Ghandoorah, a close relation to Sheikh Hamdan’s 1000 Guineas heroine Ghanaati. The third dam, Height Of Fashion, is ancestress to a plethora of the owner’s very best performers, including the legendary Nashwan.

Watson also saddles Dream Dubai for Mohd Khalifa Al Basti and the choice of Pat Dobbs. He has the advantage of an outing already this season, a pleasing third during the very first meeting of the campaign at Jebel Ali four weeks ago. That was his second start for Watson, having previously been second at Jinma Lake Racecourse in China.

~ end supplied report