Toulouse (France): France held its first day of racing in nearly two months, with three meetings across the day and the colours of HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al Thani were in the spotlight at Toulouse when his colt Abbes won the Prix Djelfor – Wathba Stallions Cup, a high-class maiden for 3-year-old Purebred Arabians.
Trained by Thomas Fourcy, Abbes dropped in behind the leaders in a slow run race in the early stages.
He then sat patiently under Olivier Peslier, waiting for the opening at the top of the straight, and once he had a clear path through, he came with a strong run on the inside to post an imperative win.
Hadi de Carrere (Nieshan), who was making his racecourse debut, came with a strong challenge at the end but was never a danger to Abbes.
By the extraordinary TM Fred Texas, who stands under the Al Shaqab banner, Abbes is out of the champion Group 1 PA mare Raqiya (Amer), and looks to be an exciting prospect for HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al Thani.
The blue and white stars of Al Shahania were victorious in three consecutive races, including the two listed races on the card!
The first of these, The Prix Caravelle – Haras des Granges, reserved for 3-year-old fillies, went to Saiga. By Teofilo out of the champion race mare Vorda, she was also bred by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Thani.
She jumped well from her inside draw and was quickly settled in mid-division by the jockey. She sat quietly under jockey Anthony Crastus until the final turn when he began to ask her for an effort.
She took time to find her stride, but once balanced she galloped strongly through to the line to win in the final strides from Moon A Lisa (Sea The Moon) by ahead.
Saiga now has the all-important ‘black type’, and plenty of promise for her future. This was a third start and second win for this filly trained by Philippe Sogorb, as she had won on her debut as a 2-year-old at Tarbes.
