Saturday’s meeting at Jebel Ali was lit up by the performance of the Mussabeh Al Mheiri trained Munyah, who pulled readily clear up the hill to win this Daaeemm Incentive race by over 5 lengths. He is an Into Mischief Colt who finished 3rd on his only start for Brendan Walsh at Gulfstream Park back in March. The form of the Gulfstream race actually worked out extremely well, with the winner, 2nd and 4th placed horses all winning on their next outings, but having been 2 seconds behind the winner (Here Comes Francis) there were no obvious clues to suggest that Munyah was capable of such a performance. Switched to the Al Mheiri yard for a winter campaign in Dubai, he has found plenty of improvement and seemed far happier on the straight course at Jebel Ali than he had been going around the turn at Gulfstream. The 2nd placed Mawhoob ran a couple of times last winter and had experience of the track at Jebel Ali, whilst the 3rd placed Casino Bay had plenty of experience and finished 2nd in a maiden race here 2-weeks ago. To have dispatched a pair of more experienced rivals with such ease can only be seen as a good sign for Munyah’s prospects and the Shadwell homebred may well prove to be capable of making his mark in pattern company on this evidence.

Antonio Fresu had a relatively straightforward task, tracking Mawhoob as far as the 3 furlong pole before asking his mount to stretch when he met the rising ground. He did slightly inconvenience Mawhoob when drifting to his right at that point, but it was not enough to affect the result and the form seems very unlikely to be reversed. He ran the fastest final 4 furlong splits in the field and recorded a late speed figure of 32.63 mph, much quicker than the 31.70 mph recorded by the runner-up. He is a much more compact Colt than the 2 horses that chased him home, recording an average stride length of 23.24 ft. However, what he lacked in scope, he more than made up for with speed, recording a top speed of 41.43 mph with a race best peak average stride frequency of 2.46 per second. Under a relatively motionless Antoni Fresu, he pulled readily clear and had the race won by the time he passed the furlong pole. He has worn headgear on both starts, with Mussabeh Al Mheiri opting to use both a tongue-tie and a visor to help him settle, but he appears to be relatively straight forwards and this was one of the most impressive performances of the season so far at Jebel Ali.

His Dam won the G3 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park in the US and although her progeny have perhaps not quite reached the same heights, he looks to be the best of them at this stage of his career. He was clearly suited by the straight course and stiff finish at Jebel Ali and it will be interesting to see if he is campaigned here for the remainder of the season or if his connections decide to see how he will handle the bends at Meydan.