Qatar Derby 30 Dec 2015

MDK has a runner
Oratorio has a runner

All the best, looks a bit of an egg n spoon race

Racing for US$500,000

Just looked in the Qatar website, there must be Six " Derbies" over the next two days

Brilliant ride Wayne Smith to force the dead Heat, well done MDK

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Drama in Doha as
Derby result amended

BY JOHN COBB IN QATAR 6:56PM 30 DEC 2015

THE Qatar Derby at Al Rayyan, Doha, was settled in dramatic fashion in the judge's box when the original announced decision in favour of victory to Germany's Rogue Runner by a nose was amended to a dead-heat with South Africa's Tannaaf.

Mike de Kock's runner had finished fast and wide up the home straight under Wayne Smith and at the line was the width of the course apart from Mario Hofer's charge, ridden prominently by Colombia-born, Germany-based Eduardo Pedroza.

A re-examination of the photo-finish print with the trainers involved concluded that the two horses were not even a pixel apart and the result was amended to a dead-heat.

For Hofer and owner Eckhard Sauren half the £$500,000 prize was still rich reward for the shrewd €80,000 purchase of Rogue Runner at the Arqana Arc sale in October.

A trip to Meydan could be on the cards for Rogue Runner, but Hofer is certain of his plans as he will be at Chelmsford on Saturday to saddle Gamgoom - a record breaker in Germany with 11 wins already this season - in the five-furlong conditions stakes.

Botti and Dettori strike

Marco Botti and Frankie Dettori doubled the tally of British success in Qatar when Rasikh landed the opening race on day two of the International Derby Festival in Doha to follow Brian Meehan's groundbreaking victory for a British stable with Perkunas on Tuesday night.

Rasikh's success came in the Al Rayyan Consolation Trophy for horses who did not make it into the main event won by Perkunas and the two-year-old was brought with a forceful late drive by Dettori to snatch the race from Harry Bentley on Pippin Street.

Rasikh is owned by Khalifa Al Attiyah, general manager of Al Shaqab for whom Dettori is retained rider.

Bentley did not have to wait long for consolation, winning the championship races for purebred Arabians, the Oaks on Najda and $150,000 Derby on Gazwan, for owner Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani and owner Julian Smart.

Was all over the place around the bend otherwise if got himself together earlier would have been easy win. Nice for MDK to get another international tick in the box. Congratulations to all involved

From racingpost bloodstock

Tannaaf another top-notcher by High Chaparral
Tannaaf was bred by Churchtown House Stud and sold by the farm at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale to Form Bloodstock for 280,000gns. He is trained by De Kock for Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum and was third in the Fairway Stakes in May.

Tannaaf is by the late Coolmore sire High Chaparral, who has sired 15 top-flight winners, including superstars such as Free Eagle, So You Think and Toronado.

He is out of the Danehill Dancer mare Wanna, a 1m4f Killarney maiden winner who is a sister to Listed winner Pirateeer, a three-parts sister to Cheveley Park Stakes heroine and 1,000 Guineas runner-up Wannabe Grand and a half-sister to stakes winners Wannabe Better and Wannabe Posh.

Wanna has also produced Danjeu, a winner in Australia by Montjeu, Just Joan, a two-year-old filly by Pour Moi, and has a yearling colt by Galileo and a filly foal by Camelot.

If he finds a split around the final bend he wins by daylight.
Great victory for the team.

Its always amazed me that racing accolades not the country of the horse nor the country of the owner but the country of the trainer. South Africa's Tanaaf, really?