First Conquest leads a Godolphin treble in style

It has been proven time and again that wide draws are no barrier to success at Meydan, and that was the case again when First Conquest overcame stall 15 in the Lord North Handicap (sponsored by DP World) - the feature race on the Dubai Racing Carnival card on Jan 10.

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It has been proven time and again that wide draws are no barrier to success at Meydan, and that was the case again when First Conquest overcame stall 15 in the Lord North Handicap (sponsored by DP World) - the feature race on the Dubai Racing Carnival card on Jan 10.

Charlie Appleby's Teofilo four-year-old had won two of his four starts before this Dubai debut, when he was stretching out to 1,800m for the first time.

That too proved no problem, as jockey Mickael Barzalona was able to bide his time after a slow start and overcome some trouble in running 400m out.

At the 200m marker, he said "go" and got a big response.

First Conquest stormed clear to put four lengths on and beat See Hector (Pat Dobbs), who finished well on his United Arab Emirates debut for UK trainer Jamie Osborne.

First Conquest's better-fancied Godolphin stablemate Arabian Light (William Buick) was a further four lengths back in third.

It was a first win of the Carnival for Barzalona, who is riding as a freelance this season. The French jockey won the Dubai World Cup on Godolphin's Monterosso in 2012.