The great racing at Nad Al Sheba has been a real boon to those viewers in the the UK and Ireland, where so many meetings have been lost owing to adverse weather conditions. The quality of horses competing at the Carnival continues to be of the highest calibre, as witnessed by the success of two former Group-winning juveniles by Cape Cross, who took valuable handicaps on Thursday night’s card.
Halicarnassus and Hatta Fort won consecutive runnings of the G2 Superlative Stakes during Newmarket’s July meeting in 2006 and 2007. The former, now five, was racing in the colours of his trainer Mick Channon, having initially borne the silks of the late Tim Corby’s Box 41 Syndicate. The winner of six races swooped fast and late for his most recent victory, a perfectly-timed run under Tadgh O’Shea landing the $72,000 first prize by three-quarters of a length in the ten-furlong Tamayuz Handicap. Halicarnassus was bred by Gilly McCalmont of Yeomanstown Stud.
Hatta Fort (pictured) gave further cheer for his breeders James and Marie-Dominique Stewart of Wellsummers Farm in Marlborough when holding on strongly in the Marju Trophy over six-and-a-half furlongs for his fifth career victory, netting $105,000 in the process. Now racing in the Godolphin blue, the four-year-old has been campaigned in America for the past year, where he won the G3 Perryville Stakes in October.
Eastern Anthem’s sire Singspiel is no stranger to Nad Al Sheba, having won the Dubai World Cup in 1997, and his dam, Kazzia, was a double Classic heroine, winning the 1,000 Guineas and the Oaks for Godolphin in 2002. The five-year-old Darley-bred has won or placed on all but one of his eight starts to date, his third victory coming with a last-to-first run in the Alhaarth Handicap on the turf over ten furlongs. Twice a Listed runner-up when trained in Newmarket, there looks more to come from Eastern Anthem throughout the Carnival.
