De Kock eyes Sheema Classic for Mahbooba

Report: UAE, Friday

Meydan: Balanchine (Sponsored by SOG Operations) (Group 2) 1m 1f, turf, 3yo+ f/m

MIKE DE KOCK continued his excellent run when saddling Mahbooba to win the Group 2 Balanchine Stakes over 1m1f on the Meydan turf on Friday.

The four-year-old daughter of Galileo had made a winning local reappearance over the same 1m1f turf trip on the opening night of the 2012 Carnival before being caught out by the drop to a mile in the Cape Verdi last time.

However, she was able to reverse form with First City who beat her on that occasion but was made to work hard and a further step up in trip looks on the agenda.

De Kock, winning the race which was only introduced in 2004 for the fifth time, said: "She won well first time but things transpired against her in the Cape Verdi when we knew the trip was on the short side. She won over a lot further in the UK and she needed the extra furlong today to grind down First City.

"The Sheema Classic will be the race we look at for her on World Cup night so the City Of Gold on Super Saturday is likely to be the next target."

Stable companion Reem was third less than 24 hours after De Kock had saddled Viscount Nelsonto win the Group 2 Al Fahidi Fort, a race in which stablemate Master Of Hounds finished third, as well as winning the concluding Thursday handicap with Zanzamar.

Tertio Bloom (Fabricio Borges/Per-Anders Graberg) and Capital Attraction(Ernst Oertel/Mirco Demuro) had earlier dead-heated in a 7f Tapeta handicap with both jockeys happy with the outcome.

Graberg said: "When I hit the front inside the final furlong I hoped we would hold on but I knew something was finishing fast and when we hit the line I really did not know."

Demuro added: "I knew it was close but would have settled for a dead-heat as they were definitely in front very close to the line."

Spainish connections were celebrating after the victory of top-weight Plantagenet in the concluding 1m2f Tapeta handicap with Ioritz Mendizabal in the saddle for trainer Guillermo Arizkorreta.

The other three thoroughbred races all went the way of the local trainers with debutant Farrier (Satish Seemar/Richard Mullen) looking a nice prospect when winning the opening 7f maiden.

Mullen said of the half-brother to Grade 1 Godolphin winner Pyro: "He is well bred and had been showing a bit at home so we were hopeful and it would be nice to think he can build on this."

Champion trainer Ali Rashid Al Raihe was out of luck with First City in the feature but combined with stable jockey Royston Ffrench to win the 1,200m handicap with Garbah, while Alnashmy (Musabah Al Muhairi/Wayne Smith) was impressve on his local debut in the 1m Tapeta handicap.