09.04.2019

Sharaf Al Reef posts a career best

ABU DHABI (UAE), APRIL 6th, 2019

LIWA OASIS

Gr2 PA - 5-year-olds and up - 1,400m – AED 300,000

Sharaf Al Reef posts a career best

The ten-year-old Sharaf Al Reef (Bibi de Carrère) recorded the best performance of his career at Abu Dhabi on April 6^th. Ridden by French jockey Gérald Avranche, he managed to catch Wadeeaa (Mahabb) in the dying strides of the Liwa Oasis (Gr2 PA) after the latter had poached a healthy lead. Sharaf Al Reef is trained by Abdallah Al Hammadi on behalf of Al Ajban Stables.

A sixth success. Wadeeaa set a good pace and it was left to Burj Al Arab (Burning Sand), Mh Rahal (Ghadab) and Al Tiryaq (Bibi de Carrère) to the tug the rest of the peloton along. The pacesetter looked to be heading for an easy win – only for her stride to shorten progressively. This proved to be an open invitation for the chasing pack and Sharaf Al Reef, having bided his time for a large part of the race, proved strongest of all after reeling-in the front runner by half a length close home. Mh Rahal took third. It marked the sixth career success of Sharaf Al Reef: all of which have been recorded on the turf at Abu Dhabi. He had been starved of success since December 2016 after coming up trumps in the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup (Gr3 PA) over a mile.

He gave his all. Gérald Avranche, the winning rider, said: « It’s always a great feeling to win a race such as this. The pace was very strong and it enabled me to the play the stamina card on my horse at the business end. There’s no denying that we met traffic problems during the race. However, once my horse saw daylight, he showed good acceleration. I thought that the front runner [Wadeeaa] was going to take some catching but my horse gave his all on the night. » 

The Njewman connection. Sharaf Al Reef was bred by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the United Arab Emirates but his pedigree is pure French. The dam Nomarchie (Dormane) recorded wins at Nad Al Sheba (dirt) and Abu Dhabi (turf). The reputation of the grandam Nefta (Saint Laurent) is well established in France as she generated two future stallions: Nuits St Georges (Dunixi) and the high class Njewman (Djourman). The latter embodies the Djourman-Nefta ‘cross’ and Sharaf Al Reef was bred on similar lines. The ‘Nefta’ influence is also visible two or three generations further down the line, as her name is to be found in the pedigrees of a whole host of PA class acts. We can draw on the examples of Spaghetti (Snoopi) - a five times winner and third in The Qatar Derby (Gr2 PA); the Prix Razzia III (Gr3 PA) third Farfale (Snoopi); Noble Athlète (Dorwan du Cayrou) – the winner of 12 races and second in The Hatta International Stakes (Gr1 PA); The Abu Dhabi International Championship (Gr1 PA) third Kashmane du Volday; and Al Kesbe (Kesberoy) whose six wins took in the Liwa Oasis (Gr1 PA).