Famous success for one-time Derby contender Chopin in Qatar

Chopin gave Bahrain a most notable and surprise success when the former German- and Irish-trained seven-year-old turned the H.H. The Emir's Trophy into a procession at Al Rayyan Racecourse in Doha, Qatar.Once deemed good enough to run in the Epsom Derby, where he was seventh to Ruler Of The World in 2013 when trained by Andreas Wohler in Germany, he joined Ger Lyons in Ireland in 2015 but lost his way.So much so that he changed hands for £9,000 and went to be trained in Bahrain by Abdulla Kuwaiti and connections hit the jackpot as Chopin scooped the first prize of over £463,000.Fundamental led from the gate but Fort Moville soon took over until jockey Alberto Sanna made his winning move a long way out.Soon many lengths clear, Chopin was not for stopping and he stormed home with Noor Al Hawa, trained in Germany by Andreas Wohler, a distant second."I liked him and bought him for £9,000 and now he has won this race for us," said Kuwaiti."He will go for the Dubai Sheema Classic now."Frankie Dettori had Arab Spring prominent early on but Sir Michael Stoute's runner was well beaten in the end."He ran flat," said Dettori.The other British raider, the Richard Fahey-trained Gabrial, was never in the hunt.Mr Scaramanga gave connections a decent and fairly swift return on their investment when gaining a smooth victory in the Al Biddah Mile.The three-year-old colt joined Simon Dow's Epsom stable when bought out of Richard Hannon's stable for 90,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale.The intention had been to go to Dubai but, despite winning at Lingfield, he was last of four at Newcastle last month, resulting in the switch to Qatar.It proved a wise move as Mr Scaramanga travelled sweetly throughout for Adrie De Vries and powered into the lead to score by three-quarters of a length from Pazeer, in a race worth £115,854 to the winner."We're just a little stable. We've been doing it for nearly 30 years and we're just incredibly lucky that although we've always had plenty of winners, I met Robert Moss and his business associate Dale Brennan and they have both got behind the stable," said Dow."They've bought a whole team of 12 horses so hopefully we'll be able to go forward."We'll have to go home and take a view. Obviously it will be slightly different. He's a little horse and is suited to turning tracks. If we can get him into these type of events we can go all over the place."He's very neat and very well balanced. He takes it all really well and doesn't turn a hair."Harry Bentley took his tally for the three-day meeting to seven with victory on Izzthatright in the Dukhan Sprint for trainer Jassim Al Ghazali.Roger Fell's British raider Caspian Prince set a scorching pace but the last of the six furlongs found him out and he was collared a neck by Izzthatright and also by Dettori on Black Granite, who got up for second by a head.The David Evans-trained Gracious John was fourth, but Jeremy Gask's Medicean Man was well down the field after being shuffled back in the early stages.Fell was left wishing the race had been over five furlongs.The North Yorkshire trainer said: "It looked like he was going to cruise home. He had them all off the bridle, but the six furlongs just caught him out."He'll go back to Dubai but whether the owner will want to run him over six furlongs, I don't know. He's definitely better over five."Former British-based jockey Alan Munro, who won the 1991 Derby on Generous, took the premier prize for Arabian horses, the HH The Emir's Sword, on Ebraz for local trainer Julian Smart.