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Abu Dhabi: Gillian Duffield reached the 20-mark on Sunday night with a three-timer at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club race course, while Abu Alemarat won the feature event and the battle for the jockey's championship looked headed for the wire.
Duffield won three races last night, each with a different jockey while Ted Durcan picked up a double to forge ahead of Tadhg O'Shea on Sunday night.
Durcan and O'Shea were tied on 22 winners each before the start and Durcan is now on 24 with O'Shea on 23 and the tussle for the title is all set to go down to the wire.
Earlier, James Frazier Jr's Abu Alemarat lived up to his favourite status while winning the night's feature event, the Group 2 Round 3 of the Abu Dhabi Triple Crown. The four-year-old son of Al Nasr, who won the first two rounds in this series, made no mistake under Durcan for his fourth consecutive win.
Omani challenger Quorman Des Vialettes was the first to show up as heads turned for home but Durcan on Abu Alemarat came up with a fine finish to win well.
"He is a lovely horse and will get better. You can expect much from him next year," said Durcan of the James Frazier-trained winner.
Impressive winners
The other two impressive winners came from Duffield's yard. Tashreefat, under Martin Dwyer - second to Mizzna in the Liwa Oasis seven days ago over seven furlongs - won a five furlong handicap last night to give Duffield the second win of the night.
Later, AS Mysaloon, wearing blinkers for the first time, almost made it a start-to-finish affair under Royston Ffrench to give Duffield her third win.
The UAE's very own Ahmad Al Ajtebi started off the penultimate meeting here in the capital with a superb win on Dareb. After two second-place runs in his two starts last month, the Mohammad Ramadan-trained Daren finally broke maiden company with Ajtebi producing a fine run in the final two furlongs.
He is a lovely horse and will get better. You can expect much from him next year."
Ted Durcan
Jockey for feature-winning horse Abu Alemarat
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