ERA.....
Watson and O’Shea maintain leads
07:25 - 06 January 2008
Doug Watson stretched his lead at the top of the trainers’ table to four at Sharjah on Saturday afternoon.
Watson struck in the fifth race, a 1700m handicap, with Af Amer Tahaddi who won comfortably by just over six lengths under Daragh O’Donohoe.
Running off a far lower mark than his turf rating, he appeared well treated beforehand – a sentiment echoed by assistant trainer Noel Connolly, who said: “We had to be hopeful of a big run on these terms and we were keen to run him here. He has done it very well.”
The opening 1200m maiden was won by Al Rashid Al Raihe’s Al Dhafirah, ridden by local apprentice Ahmed Ajtebi who was deputising for Royston Ffrench.
Dhruba Selvaratnam was present to greet Duriin who won the second 1200m maiden under Rory Cleary, while Jaci Wickham’s Dhulaima W’Rsan won the first 2000m handicap under Richard Mullen.
The pair survived a late scare when the mare hung across runner-up Sahab but any interference was too late to affect the result.
Tadhg O’Shea maintained his lead in the jockeys’ table with a win on Erwan Charpy’s Kasser in the second 2000m handicap and Gill Duffield and Ted Durcan combined to win the concluding 1700m handicap with Waadi.
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