Alkass Digital
The Qatar-sponsored Qatar Arc Trials Day took place at ParisLongchamp yesterday. Ambassador of Qatar to France H E Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani was present at ParisLongchamp and presented the trophies to the winners of the Qatar Cup - Prix Dragon (Gr 1 PA) landed by Al Shaqab Racing’s Ghadah and the Gr1 Qatar Prix Vermeille won by Coolmore’s Warm Heart.
H E Sheikh Ali also crowned the winners of the Gr2 Qatar Prix Foy, which was taken by the Al Shaqab Racing & Ballylinch Stud-owned Place Du Carrousel and the Gr2 Qatar Prix Niel, which was won by the Liberty Racing 2021-owned Fantastic Moon.
The Gr.1 (PA) Qatar Cup – Prix Dragon saw the Al Shaqab owned homebred Ghadah (Azadi) get back to winning ways following her excellent second in the Gr.1 UAE Presidents Cup at Doncaster last month.
With Mickael Barzalona in the saddle, Ghadah was held up fifth of the six runners through the early stages of the contest, which was dictated by the eventual runner-up Sahab (AF Albahar), owned by Mohammed bin Fahad Al Attiyah and trained by Mrs Jean Francois Bernard and was ridden on the occasion by Maxime Guyon.
Although still with five lengths to find on the leader on the turn for home, Ghadah travelled best of all under a motionless Barzalona and was switched wide to challenge. Once rolling, Ghadah closed with an impressive turn of foot and went clear inside the final 100m to score by just over a length.