ALMANAARAThe Emirates NBD Personal Banking, a 1000m turf handicap, was won impressively by Almanaara, trained by Doug Watson for HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Never far off the pace under Dane O’Neill, retained as second jockey by the owner, the grey charge overcame his undesirable one-post to win like a sure thing at the wire by 1¾ lengths. Eleven-year-old fan favourite Caspian Prince of Mick Appleby’s UK-based yard held well for second, while Spain’s Blueberry, trained by Guillermo Arizkorreta, completed an international trifecta.
Watson said: “This was a horse who always used to work really well, but perhaps not so much lately, so we decided to try him on turf and it has worked out well. It is great to get a Carnival winner for Sheikh Hamdan.”
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