3 minute read
Focus this weekend is on Doha for their festival which is growing bigger every year.
The Amir's Sword and Silver Sword are top races for purebred Arabians but there are four very good races on turf.
The first of these is the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup (Local G3) over 1600m with a field of 12. Brave Emperor is well placed here and Archie Watson has kept his regular jockey Luke Morris on board. The prices here are all approximate and they are 5/1 for Brave Emperor, 9/4 for Cairo (O'Brien-Moore), 4/1 Band Width (de Mieulle-Barzalona) and 12/1 Aemilianus, who used to be with Markus Klug in Germany (where he was beaten by Brave Emperor) and is now with J M Ghazali who has booked Maxime Guyon for the ride.
The Dukhan Sprint is Local G3 over 1200m with 9 runners. Godolphin's Mischief Magic is on 2/1 with Go Athletico, Ado McGuinness's very consistent sprinter (at least he was on the Curragh last year) with Ronan Whelan riding, and 6/1 Dark Trooper (de Mieulle-Barzalona) as we learnt to ride on a horse called Trooper.
The Al Rayyan Mile (Local G2) has 14 runners with the market headed by the Gosdens' Orne on 11/8 with Robert Havlin riding. Soldiers Gold is on 5/2 for e Mieulle-Barzalona and then there is a bit of a gap back to Ne Me Quite Pas (a favourite Gilbert Becaud song) 10/1 for Chris Head and Jim Crowley and on the same quote Odyssey Ghazali-Guyon.
The highlight is HH The Amir's Trophy G3 over 2400m with 11 runners. Russian Emperor won this last year an will be reunited with his winning jockey Alberto Sanna. Douglas Whyte has been very positive about the Hong Kong runner and they will have a harder task this year but still in with a good chance on 6/1. The Japanese are here and not to be ignored with Zeffiro on 9/2 and Ikee-sensei has brought in Joao Moreira for the ride. Another Japanese runner is Satono Glanz on 11/2 `with top jockey Kawada riding for Tomomichi-sensei. Godolphin (Appleby-Buick) have Rebels Romance here and they are on 5/1 together with the Gosdens Israr and Jim Crowley riding. Point Lonsdale represents Ireland (O'Brien-Moore) on 7/1 and Simca Mille is an interesting runner having recently transferred from Stephan Wattel to de Mieulle and winning his first outing in Doha – 8/1.
