IRISH eyes were smiling early on Saturday morning when the valuable Doha meeting got under way with success for Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore with the former Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Order of Australia.

The six-year-old returned to winning ways with a victory in the local Group 2 Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup at Al Rayyan Racecourse in Qatar.

Moore took the riding plaudits as he was keen to make the running on the son of Australia, and after bagging the rail in the back straight, they had enough in reserve to hold off local runner Band Width by half a length.

Moore said afterwards: “He’s a class horse on his day as a Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and it’s nice for him to get back on track. He’s probably going to improve for the run and he was waiting a little bit in front.”

The win makes him the highest earning horse in the stable with over €1.9 million earned.

Order Of Australia is now set for a return to the Middle East for the Group 1 Dubai Turf at Meydan next month.

The Ado McGuinness-trained Real Appeal finished fourth after making headway to go second a furlong out. Though he lost two positions in the final 50 yards, he still picked up over €25,000 for his efforts.

There was also an Irish/Ballydoyle element to the other feature race on the card when former Hong Kong riding legend Doug Whyte struck with his first runner overseas.

The former Ballydoyle inmate Russian Emperor came from last to first to win the HH Emir Trophy, one of two £2 million contests on the card.

Previously trained by Aidan O’Brien to win a Royal Ascot Group 3, Russian Emperor, a Coolmore-bred son of Galileo and Australian Group 1 winner Atlantic Jewel, left Ballydoyle contenders Broome (fifth) and Stone Age (eased when beaten into last) well in arrears under Alberto Sanna.

The dual Group 1 winner in Hong Kong led entering the final furlong and held off the late challenge of the Charlie Appleby-trained Warren Point to win by half a length from the field of 12.

Murphy in the money

Oisin Murphy continued his successful return to action when following up Thursday week’s comeback winner at Chelmsford with success on the Hugo Palmer-trained Flaming Rib in the Dukhan Sprint, a local Group 3.

Despite being trapped wide from his stall 12 draw, Flaming Rib closed down the leaders a furlong and a half out and went on to hold local runner Taxiwala, who had won the six-furlong contest for the last two years, to give Palmer his first winner outside Europe. David O’Meara’s sterling campaigner Summerghand could make little impression in sixth.

Alzahir, the first runner in Qatar for John and Thady Gosden, made it three European wins out of the first four races on the card when he overcame a wide trip to land the Al Rayyan Mile (Group 2) under Andrea Atzeni.