DUBAI // It was fitting that the home team of Dhruba Selvaratnam and William Buick signed off with a valuable double at Jebel Ali Racecourse's final meeting yesterday. And they did it in style in the two Dh120,000 contests as Emmrooz came back strongly from a disappointing run at Meydan Racecourse last month to outclass the field in the opening Derrinstown Stud while stablemate Mannjal claimed the Shadwell Estate feature.
Selvaratnam, who trains for Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid at Jebel Ali, had saddled Emmrooz over a mile on the Tapeta, but he could manage only 13th behind the winner, Mike de Kock's Lucky Find. Yesterday, after pulling ahead approaching the final furlong, the five-year-old son of Red Ransom never looked like getting caught by second-placed Roman's Run, trained by Doug Watson and ridden by Tadhg O'Shea.
"He's a nice horse, although I wasn't quite sure whether he would find his stride here," Buick said of Emmrooz. "In the end he did it nicely and, to be fair, he probably wasn't quite ready for his run at Meydan." Mannjal was the convincing victor of the feature, hitting the front two furlongs out and holding off the Satish Seemar-trained Escape Route under Ted Durcan. The jockey Carlos Sandoval was in the winners' enclosure in the Dh70,000 Roma Capannelle sprint for his ride on Planetary Motion. The Abdullah bin Huzaim-trained runner put three-and-a-quarter lengths between him and the second-placed Secret Place, from Watson's yard.
Watson pulled level to Ali Rashid al Raihe in the trainers' championship with a double. Bounty Quest took the Rotary Club six-furling sprint in a photo finish from Firestreak and Lord Ego claimed the Dh80,000 Shadwell Farm handicap. Both were ridden by Dobbs. De Kock's Warsaw ground out a post-to-post victory under Kevin Shea in the Dh60,000 Abu Dhabi University handicap. "I was waiting for someone to take the race on but no-one seemed willing so I had to take the initiative," said Shea.
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