One race later on the card, Mshawish comfortably denied Trade Storm a repeat win in the $250,000 Zabeel Mile (UAE-II).
In a leisurely run race, Richard Hughes had the winner ideally positioned in second as Mustaheel laid down a dawdling opening quarter in :27 flat.
Mshawish had the race sewn up more than a quarter mile out when Mustaheel weakened and yielded.
Trade Storm broke a step slow for Jamie Spencer and raced at the back of the seven-horse field. Though he rallied smartly in the final 300 meters, he never looked a threat to Mshawish in a creditable second-placed finish, 2 1/2 lengths back.
Third-place finisher Mushreq tracked the Mustaheel and Mshawish from third in the early going and finished evenly, 3 3/4 lengths behind Trade Storm.
A 4-year-old son of Medaglia d'Oro , Mshawish was timed in 1:37.13 on turf rated as firm, winning for the first time from two starts this season and for the third time in nine career starts for trainer Mikel Delzangles and Qatari Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani's Al Shaqab Racing. His season debut was a close runner-up finished to Anaerobio in the Al Fahidi Fort (UAE-II) Jan. 23. Anaerobio was scratched from the Zabeel Mile.
Mshawish was bred in Kentucky by OTIF 2007 out of the Thunder Gulch mare Thunder Bayou. He previously raced with distinction at the top level in Europe, finishing fourth both in last year's Prix du Jockey Club (Fr-I, French Derby) at Chantilly and St. James's Palace Stakes (Eng-I) at Royal Ascot.
The dark bay or brown colt was a $219,589 purchase by Al Shaqab's bloodstock advisor Nicholas de Watrigant's Mandore International at the 2012 Arqana breeze-up sale.
He sold twice at Keeneland: first as a weanling to Hot Pepper Farm for $25,000 out of the Dapple Bloodstock consignment at the 2010 November breeding stock sale; then as a September yearling to Brown Island Stables for $10,000 from the Bedouin Bloodstock draught. Brown Island in turn offered him at the Arqana sale.
Valentin Bukhtoyarov and Evgeny Kappushev's My Catch tracked pacesetter Make It Reel and struck 300 meters to overhaul the leader and win $125,000 Meydan Classic for 3-year-olds on turf.
The Camacho colt, sixth in the U.A.E. Two Thousand Guineas (UAE-III) last out, won by one length under Patrick Dobbs when cutting back a furlong. He covered 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs) in 1:24.57, with Jallota finishing second and Najm Suhail third.
A French group III winner last summer, My Catch improved his record to 3-1-1 from seven starts. He is trained by Doug Watson.
