Officials at the Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club, in consultation with horsemen, called off the remainder of Saturday's HH The Amir Trophy and Amir Sword Meeting at Al Rayyan following a nasty spill involving two horses and affecting several others with 400 metres left to race in the first of the day's events, the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup over the 1600 metres.
The Ed Bethell-trained Point Lynas (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) was tracked to his outside by the locally-owned Surfers Paradise (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}) into the straight, but the latter appeared to have the ground go out from under him and fell, casting jockey Szczepan Mazur to the turf over the bowed neck of his mount. Archie Watson's defending champion Brave Emperor (Ire) (Sioux Nation), the mount of Luke Morris, raced in the slipstream of Surfers Paradise into the straight but could not avoid the fallen horse immediately in front of him and went down as well. Mazur, who may have been clipped by Brave Emperor, was sitting up shortly after the incident and was later reported to have been taken to hospital, while Morris was back on his feet.
Tom Palin of Middleham Park Racing, owner of Brave Emperor, told TDN, “Thankfully, Brave Emperor seems fine but, as we all know with horses, we don't know what might show up in the morning. Luke is also fine so that's the main thing. They are going to race at Al Uqda tomorrow.”
Andrew Balding, who is in Doha to saddle The Foxes (Ire) for the HH The Amir Trophy, said, “Horse and jockey safety is paramount so they couldn't take any risks. We had some issues with the track but I believe we are all rescheduled on a different racecourse tomorrow so the journey won't be wasted.
“The ground is very loose and slippery. The track has been recently relaid and it just hasn't bedded in. Obviously the jockeys felt it was unsafe and, quite rightly, they didn't want to take any risks. We have been reassured that the racetrack at Al Uqda has been fully operational all winter and there are no concerns about the surface there so the remainder of the card is expected to take place there.”
Underfoot conditions also wreaked havoc on the second day of the Amir Sword Festival on Friday, as jockeys expressed their disapproval. Following a two-hour delay, racing was allowed to continue and the card was completed.
Sunday's rescheduled card at Al Uqda Equestrian Complex in Al Khor will begin at 12 p.m. local time.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
