Trainer Ernst Oertel out to enhance his win record in sophomore season

ABU DHABI // Ernst Oertel is riding the crest of a wave in his second season as the trainer for the Al Asayl Stables of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE.

The South African bettered his previous record of 16 winners by five when Capital Attraction provided him with a first Dubai World Cup Carnival winner at the halfway stage of the season at Meydan Racecourse on Thursday.

Oertel can add to this tally with 10 runners entered in four of the six races on Sunday night at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.

The trainer is double handed with Callateral and Forgehill Cezanne in the opener, a Conditions race for maidens and winners of one race, and has eight entered in the next three races.

Tadhg O'Shea, Oertel's stable jockey, is suspended and Sam Hitchcott appears to have picked up the best of the spare rides.

Oertel has four entered in the second race, a handicap rated 0-97 run over the 2,200m distance.

Hitchcott rides Swyft from Oertel's quartet in the feature race. The pair were third over the same course and distance last time out in a contest won by the reopposing Ibn Battuta Monlau, trained by Eric Lemartinel and ridden by Gerald Avranche.

"We have made a great start to the season and it was brilliant to get a winner at Meydan on Thursday," Oertel said.

"We have plenty of chances in Abu Dhabi and Swyft looks our best in the feature as he stays so well. It looks a strong race though and he will need to be at his best."

apassela@thenational.ae

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