THE evergreen seven-year-old Benbatl (Saeed Bin Suroor/Oisin Murphy) got the biggest cheer of the day on Friday as he gamely landed the Group 2 Joel Stakes by three-parts of a length from the front-running Pogo (Charlie Hills/Kieran Shoemark), the latter setting the race up and battling on gamely when headed a furlong out.

Given the times were fast all day and Pogo did his pacemaking duties with rare enthusiasm, it was no surprise to hear that the winner had lowered the track record set by Kameko in last year’s 2000 Guineas.

Benbatl was sent off at 13/8 second favourite behind Charlie Appleby’s Master Of The Seas, who was a tad unlucky as he had to switch to challenge, but didn’t convince with his attitude when making his challenge, and was still half a length behind the runner-up at the line.

It was the winner’s tenacity which won the day, and he has been a real star in a fairly arid period for Saeed Bin Suroor.

To put the race time (1:34:56) in proper context, it should be pointed out that the horses have had the benefit of a tailwind on the first two days of this meeting, and the record applies specifically to the Rowley Mile, which is raced on only in spring and autumn.

Somewhat confusingly, despite being a record, it’s also a slower time than Eagle Mountain recorded when winning the same race in a wind-assisted 1:34:07 back in 2008. Benbatl has won three Group 1 races and won this race in 2019.

Dettori winner

The Listed Rosemary Stakes went the way of Soft Whisper (Saeed Bin Suroor/Frankie Dettori), who had been off the track since finishing lame in the UAE Derby in March, but returned from absence with a career-best effort to beat Maamora (Simon and Ed Crisford/James Doyle) by one and three quarter lengths, after the pair had raced in the first two throughout.

The winning trainer was immediately looking forward to another Dubai Carnival with the winner, who won the UAE 1000 Guineas in January, saying:

“We will probably now take her back to Dubai for the winter where races likes the Balanchine and Cape Verdi at Meydan could be on her agenda.”