Newmarket
12th July
By Paul Simmons
Track:
Good to Firm
The President of the UAE International Challenge Derby Group
1 over
1 Mile 2 Furlongs:
1. Robbie A De Vries
1. Al Dahma D Bouland
3. Kandar Du Falgas R Hills
Distances:
dead heat, 1 ½ 6 ran Time:
02:19:29
Winner – Robbie – Owned
and bred by Mrs. G Kok. Trained by Mr. A Trybuhl(GER)
Winner – Al Dahma – Owned and bred by HH Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al Thani
Trained by M A De Mieulle (FR).
A strong renewal of the Derby but the field was reluctant to
sort a pace setter and Mistral Del Sol from the Netherlands eventually
set the running with 6/4 favourite Al Dahma (Amer x Al Hanoof)
and Robbie settled in behind. Kandar Du Falgas was sent to the
front by Richard Hills from the five furlong marker but Al Dahma
and Robbie (Makzan x Naira) were cruising in behind, eventually
making their move inside the final furlong and quickening clear
out of the dip. French raider Al Dahma and German based Robbie
were nip and tuck all the way to the line in a thrilling finish
to dead heat for the Derby. Kandar Du Falgas (Kesberoy x Djoulia
Du Falgas) was another length and a half back in third and lost
nothing in defeat, whilst the rest of the field were well beaten.