LONDON: Capezzano destroyed the field in a convincing win in the Group 1 Maktoum Challenge Round 3 at Meydan on Super Saturday.
Jockey Mickael Barzalona raced the horse up to the front and pulled away from any challengers, including Godolphin’s hot favorite Thunder Snow, to win by nine and-a-half lengths for his biggest career prize.
It was also the first winner for trainer Salem bin Ghadayer, who has recently returned from a one-year suspension, and the Emirati was full of praise for his horse, saying he had a “bright future.”
It was Capezzano’s third victory in a row and the first time over the step up in distance of 2,000 meters.
Christophe Soumillon, who was on board Thunder Snow and rode that horse to victory in the Dubai World Cup last year, said he was content with second place, a position he found himself in the same race 12 months ago.
Capezzano blitzes Thunder Snow to claim Maktoum Challenge crown at Meydan’s Super Saturday
Capezzano blitzes Thunder Snow to claim Maktoum Challenge crown at Meydan’s Super Saturday
- Mickael Barzalona raced the horse up to the front and pulled away from any challengers
- Was Capezzano’s third victory in a row
Sweden’s Ekstrom takes Dakar stage seven win in Saudi Arabia
- Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah stays top in the car category
WADI AL-DAWASI: Mattias Ekstrom won stage seven of the Dakar Rally on Sunday as the field started the second week in Saudi Arabia with late drama for Toyota’s Henk Lategan while Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah stayed top in the car category.
South African Lategan had looked like taking the stage and overall lead but let both slip through his fingers after the day’s final checkpoint.
Instead, Sweden’s Ekstrom, winner of the prologue in a Ford Raptor, became the first driver in the top car category to take more than one stage this year.
Lategan had led Ekstrom after 417 of 459km from Riyadh to Wadi Al-Dawasir, but finished eight minutes and 35 seconds behind the winner after having to stop for 10 minutes at the 428km mark.
Ekstrom moved up to second overall, four minutes and 47 seconds behind Dacia Sandriders’ five-times Dakar winner Al-Attiyah with Lategan third.
Spaniard Nani Roma was fourth for Ford after being reinstated by stewards late on Saturday’s rest day as winner of stage five and having a one minute and 10 second penalty rescinded.
In the motorcycle category, Australian Daniel Sanders extended his lead over American rival Ricky Brabec to four minutes and 25 seconds with Argentine rider Luciano Benavides a further 15 seconds adrift.
Sanders had been a mere 45 seconds clear after Friday’s sixth stage but Honda’s Brabec finished the 459km stage 10th to the Australian’s fourth.
Argentine Benavides won the stage, his second triumph of the event, in a one-two for the Red Bull KTM factory team with Spaniard Edgar Canet, while Honda’s French challenger Adrien Van Beveren was third.
Monday’s 481km stage eight is the longest of the race with riders and drivers navigating canyons and dunes around Wadi Ad Dawasir.
