3 minute read

Seven-time UAE champion jockey Tadhg O'Shea will be joining a new team when the new season commences at Meydan on Thursday.

The fan favourite will start his 2019-20 tenure wearing the silks of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and receiving a leg-up from the master of Jebel Ali Stables, trainer Nicholas Bachalard.

"A lot of illustrious names have ridden in those silks and I feel privileged to have been approached by Nicholas Bachalard and offered the position," O'Shea said.

"Jebel Ali obviously has some new horses this season, some promising 2-year-olds from American breeze-up sales and some old timers, so it's a great opportunity.

"It's a new yard and new season for me, my weight is good and I feel great.

"First and foremost I want to stay in one piece and then I'd like to ride in as many races as I can."

In addition to his contracted job with Jebel Ali, O'Shea will maintain his fruitful relationship with 2018-19 champion owner Khalid Khalifa Al Nabooda, whose phenomenal Purebred Arabian operation ended last season with 53 wins - 19 more than second-placed Godolphin.

O'Shea exits a seventh championship season in which he won 48 races and earned nearly $US2 million in prize money, topped by a brilliant ride on Al Nabooda's AF Maher in the G1 $1 million Dubai Kahayla Classic on Dubai World Cup night.

"Sheikh Ahmed has the thoroughbreds, Khalid has Arabians and, touch wood, hopefully it works out well and is going to keep me busy," he said.

"It's back to zero with a new season starting. I'm riding for two very powerful men in Sheikh Ahmed and Khalid and I just want to do them justice and justify their faith in employing me to ride their horses."