Nad Al Sheba Review Sunday, January 23th
By Martin Talty
Nick Robb, a former assistant to Alex Scott in Newmarket, is quickly establishing himself among the trainers in the United Arab Emirates and he prepared his first double at Nad Al Sheba on Sunday night, courtesy of the Australian-bred Fitzgerald and the Irish-bred Jamrr.
But while Robb saddled his first double there was no doubt about the star performance of the evening, that came from the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Blue Snake, a highly impressive winner of the Conditions event over 1,700m.
Stablemate Bahamian Bounty was pulled out of the race at the 1000m due to a slipped saddle however it would have made no difference as Blue Snake led throughout to dominate the event by nine lengths. Bathwick finished second with UAE newcomer Moutahddee another three lengths away third.
Out of the 1000 Guineas placegetter Dabaweyaa, Blue Snake proved himself capable of winning a decent race in the Emirates this season with this performance and the second leg of the Listed Maktoum Challenge early next month is a likely target.
Robb, however had reason to feel content, he saddled Bathwick to finish second to Blue Snake and Charmes to finish fourth and his winning double took his seasonal tally to tree, only taking over the training at Grandstand Stables a matter of weeks ago.
The first win of the evening came with the surprise victory of Fitzgerald, a son of Last Tycoon out of Lunchtime's Golden Slipper placegetter Food For Love, and is owned by Lynden Burns, manager of Roselands Stud in Victoria. Fitzgerald was ridden by Melbourne Cup winning jockey Greg Hall, who plans to ride in England over the Summer.
The second leg of the Robb double came via Jamrr, who make it two wins from two starts in the Emirates with his narrow win over Swadene.
The win of Jamrr also provided leading jockey Ted Durcan with the second leg of yet another double, the jockey having won earlier in the evening aboard the Purebred Arabian Gerbya.
