On Sunday 27 May 2012 at The Curragh Racecourse, the second leg of the world renowned President of the UAE Cup Series; The Original Arabian Purebred Classic Series, was run under beautiful blue skies on Irish 1000 Guineas Day.
A field of 5 top quality horses with some very significant jockey bookings ran in this prestigious contest, the first International race of the Arabian Racing 2012 season. Four of the five riders in this contest have been Champion Flat or Arabian Jockeys including Curragh experts Pat Smullen and Johnny Murtagh.
Leading the weights and the betting market were Group 1 winners Harran and Areej, both trained by Julian Smart. Areej had the best single piece of form having won the Qatar Arabian World Cup (Group 1 PA) at Longchamp, France in October. Three time UK champion flat jockey and latest Ballydoyle recruit Ryan Moore took the ride. This no doubt increased the appeal of the race to international television viewers and Irish punters alike, demonstrating a truly fantastic promotion of the growing sport of Arabian Racing world wide.
In a race that saw the Julian Smart pair go off first and second favourite, it was the punters who took a chance on outsider TIDARBRET who were rewarded when he made all for a fantastic win.
None of the jockeys looked overly keen to make the running and the American horse Chinaactic veered very wide from the stalls, costing him a fair amount of ground. After missing out on the odds on favourite in 2011, five time Irish Champion Jockey, Johnny Murtagh, was not going to be caught out and he set the pace on the 12-1 outsider.
Whilst a large portion of the race was run in Indian File behind Tidarbret, in the last couple of furlongs odds on favourite Areej threw down the gauntlet and mounted her challenge. It was a thrilling battle between the two greys and punters who had studied the form going into this race would have expected the mare to come out the winner. Tidarbret just would not give up however and won by three quarters of a length. Chinaactic and Simon Walker flew the final few yards to take second out of nowhere.
Owned by Miss Nicky Gilbert and trained by Dennis Batteate of Newmarket, Tiderbret, a 2009 UK Breeder’s Cup winner, had a decent start to 2012 when finishing third to Chinaactic in The Emirates Equestrian Federation Stakes at Wolverhampton earlier this month. Both horses ran very impressively on the all-weather that day, and perhaps this gave them the edge in the third renewal of this Listed race in Ireland.
The Arabian Racing Organisation (ARO) would like to thank Emirates Equestrian Federation for their kind and generous sponsorship of this race and their ongoing support of Arabian Racing in the United Kingdom. In all Emirates Equestrian Federation contribute £108,000 to UK prize money each season. The race in Ireland is now in its third year of running and ARO was delighted to see UK owners and trainers supporting this valued global series and enjoying a weekend of traditional Irish hospitality with an Abu Dhabi twist.
Picture: Tidarbret making all to beat (from left) Areej, Chinaactic (USA) and Harran (QA)
