Monday racing can often be a little mundane, but the Andre Fabre-trained Al Wukair lit up the Prix Djebel at Maisons-Lafitte with an impressive success in the seven furlong Group Three event.
Ridden by Gregory Benoist, the three-year-old went off the 9/10 favourite and despite being around 10 lengths off the leader in last place early on, Fabre’s charge made good headway in the home straight, displaying a potent turn of foot on the outside to score by a length from another decent looking colt National Defense, trained by Criquette Head-Maarek in second, who has won a Group One event in the past.
YouTube: Al Wukair – Prix Djebel – Maisons-Laffitte – 10/04/2017
Fabre immediately confirmed that the son of Dream Ahead would now head for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and he is a general 8/1 shot for the British Classic for owners Al Shaqab.
Fabre is no stranger to plundering Classics in Britain and was last successful with Pour Moi in the 2010 Derby.
Aidan O’Brien’s Churchill heads the betting for the event over one mile but he looks to have a worthy opponent in Al Wukair. Fabre remarked:
I’m very pleased and he will now go to Newmarket. He is a very different horse to Zafonic. He was like a powerful bull. This is a more laid-back horse, but he has a beautiful action and a lot of class.
I wouldn’t say he was green, he was just a little bit flat-footed over the seven furlongs. I think stepping up to a mile will help him.
Harry Herbert, racing manager to Al Shaqab, said:
I wasn’t there myself, but I watched the race and have spoken to the team and he was clearly very impressive. He is still a little bit green and there was some ring-rustiness there, but the acceleration he has is so exciting – he has a fantastic turn of foot.
He does it all so easily at home and is held in very high regard by Andre. He showed signs that he’s still an inexperienced horse, which is why Andre was so keen to go to the Djebel with him. I think he’s a very exciting colt and all being well he’ll be aimed for the English 2000 Guineas.
I would expect him to be much sharper for that, he’ll need to be, and we all look forward to seeing him at Newmarket at the start of May.
