THE opening night of the 2019 Dubai World Cup Carnival at Meydan on Thursday featured the Dubawi Stakes and Singspiel Stakes, both Group 3s and worth US$200,000 each.

Satish Seemar and Richard Mullen have a great record in the six-furlong Dubawi Stakes, winning the race four times with Reynaldothewizard. They landed a fifth with Raven’s Corner (Raven’s Pass) sporting the colours of Touch Gold Racing who own the six-year-old gelding in partnership with Sean Ewing. “It’s fantastic,” said Mike Kaye. “We’ll see how he comes out, but the [Group 3] Al Shindagha would be the plan. If we give him a little break, it would be between that and the Dubai Golden Shaheen.”

Godolphin runners filled the first five spots in the Singspiel Stakes, led by the Saeed bin Suroor-trained duo of Dream Castle (Frankel) and Racing History. The former, with Christophe Soumillon aboard, won by a length and a half in this prep for the $6 million Dubai Turf. Dream Castle was winning for the first time since making a successful debut as a three-year-old in April 2017, after which he was fifth in the Group 1 2000 Guineas.

The first race of the 2019 Carnival, a 12-furlong turf handicap, was won by Godolphin’s Saeed bin Suroor-trained Bin Battuta (Dubawi) who had been off the track for 495 days. This was his fourth victory on his ninth outing and he has now won over distances from six furlongs to a mile and a half. Bin Suroor said: “We think he is a group horse and we will step him up in grade at some stage. He stays further than this and he could be a Dubai Gold Cup horse.”

Won in each of the last three years for Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum by Ertijaal, the five-furlong turf handicap was again won by the owner with the Australian-trained Faatinah (Nicconi), running on strongly to deny the Darren Bunyan-trained Hit The Bid. The winner is trained by David Hayes and was ridden by Jim Crowley. Assistant trainer Ben Hayes said: “He runs well fresh as we know so that might be the plan; to give him plenty of time between runs, with the Al Quoz Sprint the final target on the Dubai World Cup card.”

Over seven furlongs on dirt, the UAE 1000 Guineas Trial produced a dominant winner in Al Hayette (Union Rags) who was winning her second race in a fortnight having landed her maiden over a mile. The filly is owned and trained by Ismail Mohammed who said: “In the future, she will stay further. Obviously we will go for the UAE 1000 Guineas next and perhaps the UAE Oaks.”

A British win came in the seven-furlong turf handicap through Another Batt (Windsor Knot), a first UAE runner for Newmarket trainer George Scott. Ridden by Connor Beasley, the four-year-old gelding is owned by Excel Racing whose members include Southampton footballer Charlie Austin.