Having missed the break, the Helal Al Alawi-trained Sniper De Monlau looked more intent on stopping than racing with Ffrench forced to resort to his whip very early on. Previously unraced on dirt, Ffrench’s mount finally started to help his jockey when taken out wide of his seven rivals.
Entering the long Al Ain straight, they were widest of all but, unlike last season when he threw away two, if not three of his five races by drifting badly left, Sniper De Monlau ran ‘gun barrel straight’.
Making relentless progress towards the centre of the track, they hit the front 200m from home to deny Faucon Du Loup victory.
It was an impressive performance with three Group One winners, including the runner-up, among his seven victims on what was only his sixth career start.
Ffrench was, understandably, delighted to land the Dh300,000 first prize and said: “All winners are nice but winning a big race with a valuable purse is more special.
“This is a very good, young horse and there should be more to come from him. The trainer and his team have done a great job with him and deserved an awful lot of credit.”
The trainer went on to complete a double with RB Goliath and George Buckell landing a 1000m handicap.
In contrast, Montmorency, victorious in the only Thoroughbred race – a 1000m handicap – was having his 50th career outing and recording an eight win. A horse who turns eleven at the end of the month, he had last visited the winner’s enclosure in March 2012.
Trained by Satish Seemar, he was a first UAE winner for the stable’s apprentice Cameron Noble.
Champion Jockey Tadhg O’Shea was in double form, landing the first and last of the seven races, highlighted by the hard fought success of Sheikh Down in a 2600m handicap, the opening round of the Al Ain Marathon Series. He is trained by Eric Lemartinel, for Sheikh Khalifa.
Earlier, the Mohd Ramadan-trained Babel D’Aillas was the easy winner of the opening 2000m maiden, under O’Shea who, seemingly, never had a moment of worry.
Sheikh Mansour owned first and second in a 2000m handicap with Saeed Al Mazrooei aboard the Majed Al Jahouri-trained Ajjaj denying Munaaf, saddled by Ahmad Al Mehairbi and ridden by Hary Bentley.
