Manama Gold remains undefeated after winning UAE Oaks

Manama Gold has been one of the stars of the Dubai season so far and Fawzi Nass’s filly took her unbeaten record to three with victory in the Group 3 UAE Oaks.

Ridden by Adrie De Vries, the daughter of Star Guitar disputed the pace along the rail and went clear in the straight, but then had to be kept up to her work to see off Mizzyaan, who was closing again at the line. Manama Gold held to win by 1 1/4 lengths.

Manama Gold, coming off of a 9 1/4-length victory in the Cocoa Beach Stakes at Meydan on Jan. 19, paid $2.20 to win in the pari-mutuel pool. She stopped the timer in 2:00.81 for the 1 3/16-mile distance.

“I’m very pleased; I have a lot to do with her in the mornings and she’s a very special filly,” said De Vries. “At the moment, I think she’s not at her best – she’s growing a lot - but she has a lot of class.

“I didn’t really have a plan to make (the running) but no-one really wanted it. You can see when she gets in front she pricks her ears. I think she’ll be a better filly next year, but I’ll leave it to Fawzi and (owner) Sheikh Nasser to make a plan.”

The UAE Oaks was a 50-25-15-10-5 point prep race on the road to the Kentucky Oaks. Manama Gold earned the top allotment while Mizzyaan, Lightning Paradise, Kibo Misaki and Fatinah earned the other Kentucky Oaks points, while Sensatiable completed the order of finish in the six-horse field. Second-place Mizzyaan has a familiar pedigree to followers of American racing: she is by 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify out of Vale Dori, a two-time Grade 1 winner in California for trainer Bob Baffert.