This Sunday saw one of the feature racecards of the entire season at the Abu Dhabi Turf Club, the UAE President Cup meeting. A card with 10,800,000 AED (£2.3m) on offer in prize-money is worth a watch and having looked through the TPD data, there are some interesting angles to this form for the Arabian-breds. With such an incredible prize fund on offer, it will be no surprise that this card attracted some of the best Purebred Arabians in Dubai, along with a valuable race for the Thoroughbreds. This meeting gave us a chance to see one of the leading Arabian-bred horses in the world, the unbeaten HM Alchahine as he bid to complete a 7-timer in the Abu Dhabi Derby. He didn’t disappoint as he ran out a 3-length winner but that was just a prelude to the 8,000,000 AED President Cup that rounded off the card. Heros de Lagarde rounded off a wonderful evening of Racing in ABu Dhabi by landing his 2nd Group 1 at the track for his trainer Ibrahim Al Hadhrami. Here’s my analysis of both races from the TPD Data.
HH the President Cup (G1 Arabian-bred)
Heros de Lagarde delivers another Group 1 success. This was a second win at the highest level for Ibrahim Al Hadhrami’s likeable grey, but his victory in the President Cup is as much due to the courage shown by Connor Beasley as it is to the horse himself. In a race that was run at a steady early gallop, Beasley found himself in mid-division on the inside of the track at the point where the pace began to lift. However, rather than switching wide in search of racing room, as many of his rivals chose to do, he took the braver approach and waited on the inside for the gaps to appear. When they did, Heros de Lagarde displayed an excellent turn-of-foot to go through them, clocking a peak of 37.69 mph, the fastest of any horse in the race. Once in front, he has perhaps idled a little, but he had enough in hand in the final furlong to win by 2-lengths from Suny du Loup in a time of 2:27.50. That winning time was 0.63s faster than the 4-year-old Abu Dhabi Derby won by HM Alchachine earlier on the card, though his top speed was considerably quicker than the 4-year-old winner (36.71 mph).
He will presumably be back for the Group 1 Emirates Championship that he won here in March and with a considerable turn-of-foot, he should be hard to beat if getting similar circumstances. However, we should also spare a thought for the 3rd placed Bahwan. He has chased home Heros de Lagarde on several occasions, but having been caught 5-wide around the final turn, he has kept his head down to run on in the closing stages and with a faster run-out speed of 33.62 mph (Heros de Lagarde 31.23 mph) he may get the chance to reverse this form in a more truly run race.
Abu Dhabi Derby
HM Alchahine has a record that now reads 7 starts, 7 victories. It’s an incredible CV and huge credit needs to go to his connections, most notably his trainer Helal Alalawi. He is a remarkable horse, but I can’t help but feel he was slightly fortunate here and as a result this form needs to be treated with caution. In a race where the majority of the field were still travelling on the bridle with 3-furlongs to run, he was ideally placed on the leaders quarters. Whilst he kicked 3-lengths clear turning into the straight and was able to maintain that advantage, the data does not
suggest that he was that far clear of his rivals. With a top speed of 36.71 mph, he ranks 4th of 14. His peak stride frequency of 2.15 strides per second sees him ranked 14th, though his peak stride length of 23.59 feet ranks him 3rd. He is a very good horse and he knows how to win, but a long striding horse ideally placed at the front of a steadily run race? Possibly. He was the best horse on the day and looks to be one of the most exciting Arabians running in Dubai this season, but there is no doubt that this race setup perfectly for him.
The horse that I would like to take from this race is the 3rd placed Filly, Jina’an. She has run exceptionally well against the boys after winning a handicap here in November and there are surely more races to be won with her. Having sat behind the leaders in the early stages and was so keen in the back straight that she almost ran into the back of the horse in front of her. Despite using up so much nervous energy in the early stages, she stuck to her task well under Silvestre de Sousa and her run-out speed of 33.51 mph was the best in the field. They have tried her on the dirt before when she won a Jebel Ali maiden back in January and she might be a horse to switch away from Abu Dhabi in the future. This was the 4th time that she has chased home HM Alchahine and she seems unlikely to reverse the form if they tried for a 5th time, but she shaped like a filly who would appreciate a stiffer test of stamina and she could be interesting if switching to the dirt in the new year.
Adam Mills