English/Ire
Crisford’s enjoy Meydan treble
Simon and Ed Crisford enjoyed a fine treble at Meydan on Super Saturday night, with Quddwah, Meydaan and Title Role all hitting the winners’ circle.
A winner of the Zabeel Mile before his fourth-place finish in the inaugural Abu Dhabi Gold Cup, Quddwah kicked off the double with a smooth win in the Singspiel Stakes and under an uncomplicated Ryan Moore ride, success never really looked in doubt.
Sharply away from stall eight, Ryan Moore's mount travelled sweetly in behind the front-running Dioptase before looming up to make a challenge passing the 350m marker. It briefly looked as though Dividend was going to put up a bid under Rossa Ryan, but he proved no match for Simon and Ed Crisford's five-year-old, who displayed the superior turn of foot in the closing stages to strike by two and a half lengths. Holloway Boy was denied a head in third.
"There was no pace early," said Ed Crisford. "Ryan had him in completely the right position, kicked for home coming off the bend, and he won really well.
"We'll see how he is, but the Dubai Turf will be the plan as he saw out the extra furlong well."
Connections only had to wait 35 minutes to complete the double as Meydaan made a seamless transition to the dirt in the Al Maktoum Classic.
The son of Frankel had landed a conditions race on the turf earlier in the season before finishing third in the Al Khail Trophy but now faced a new challenge as he dropped to a mile and a quarter for his first start on the dirt.
Despite new conditions, he ran out a facile five and a quarter-length winner in the hands of William Buick, who switched his mount out between rivals in the straight before unleashing him past Walk Of Stars with a furlong to go.
"He won here over a mile and six furlongs on turf, but he had been training well on this surface," said Ed Crisford.
"So, we thought 'why don't we give this a go?' Every work on it he just got better and we trialed him on it last week and he finished really well.
"We thought he would be outpaced early, but that if he could just have the front rank within his sights he could finish well and that's what he did. William [Buick, jockey] was taking a pull on the back stretch and I thought 'well we've won this!
Success guaranteed Meydaan a ticket to the Dubai World Cup, with Ed Crisford confirming that his unexposed dirt performer would now take his chance.
He said: "Let's go to the World Cup!"
A fine night for the Crisford team was completed when the highly promising Title Role took another step in the right direction to claim the Listed Jumeirah 2000 Guineas.
All eyes were on Charlie Appleby's 2000 Guineas hopeful Talk Of New York but after being held up early on under Ryan Moore, Title Role showed a smart turn of foot to beat the pacesetter Pacific Avenue by just over a length.
"All the talk was about Charlie's horse [Talk Of New York] who had been training well, but we had the experience, with two runs out here," said Ed Crisford.
"There was a lot of pace on tonight and this horse is tough. We will take him back to the UK and I would quite like to take him to the Greenham at Newbury. Then he's entered in the French Guineas… he could be a Jersey sort of horse, there's options."
Summing up a superb night for his team, he added: "we had some big chances tonight but to have three winners on Super Saturday is just huge for our stable. We love Dubai and our horses love Dubai."
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