The French bred Arabian ABBES (TM Fred Texas x Raqiyah) proved too good for his eight rivals and carried the colours of his owner His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani to success in the Group 1 PA UAE Presidents Cup (UK Arabian Derby), a 2,000m contest for four-year-old Purebred Arabians, at Doncaster Racecourse on Saturday, September 11th.
Trained in France by Thomas Fourcy, with Group 2 and Group 3 success already under his belt, the grey colt secured an inaugural Group 1 success, having already placed second in Group 1’s on two occasions at Saint Cloud and Chantilly respectively. Ridden by Olivier Peslier, ABBES, settled at the rear in the first half of the race, but always looked comfortable throughout the 2,000m contest. At the bend, he came closer to the leaders and continued improving. While it seemed that over ARION (Dahess) is going to win as he kicked away at the 600m mark, ABBES turned things up side up down with a massive sweep to get the better of ARION and with plenty in hand over him in the last strides. ARION finished second for trainer Mme J F Bernard and jockey Jean-Bernard Eyquem while the Philip Collington-trained and Dane O’Neill-ridden ALAJAB (No Risk Al Maury) back in third.
Bred by Umm Qarn, ABBES is by stallion Haras des Thouras’ triple Group 1 winning stallion TM FRED TEXAS (Burning Sand). His dam RAQIYAH (Amer) is a four-time Group One winner in France.
Source: Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club