By Leslie Wilson Jr

Action from the throughbred handicap.

Sharjah - Surprises were the flavour of the day at the Sharjah Race Club yesterday, with trainer Karim Aga delivering perhaps the tastiest of them all when he sent out unfancied Catercap to win a competitive thoroughbred handicap, for his first win in almost 20 months.

 And should the Stewards of the Meet had their way, Aga might have been compelled to wait even longer to rediscover the taste of success.

 For Catercap, a seven year old son of Royal Academy, was reportedly discovered lame by the Stewards in the parade ring prior to the start of the race, and it was only at Aga's assurance that the horse was actually sound, that they cleared Catercap to run.

 And he did, running away from the likes of Motamakkin and Music Row to score a thoroughly compelling one length victory under jockey Dane O'Neill. "He's got a lot of heart," Aga told Gulf News. "He only came to my yard about 40 days ago, but I soon realised that he was a pretty good horse. He's been working well and consistently, which made us believe that he could actually win today, despite carrying top weight.

"I wasn't at all surprised with the result, and I'm confident that he'll win again," asserted Aga who went winless last season but trained nine winners in India during the summer break. Aga is perhaps best known for his successes with the sprinter Kablevsky, the horse that incidentally gave him his last win during the tail end of the 1997-98 season.

 Other surprises were served up by French trainer Erwan Charpy, who saddled Ashbal to win a 1,900 metre handicap, only the second time the chestnut has won in 19 starts; and by Dhruba Selvaratnam, whose Moonlight Acre broke a seven-race drought spread over two seasons, to win his sixth race in 26 starts.

 Though the winning margins of both Ashbal and Moonlight Acre were officially recorded at 1.5 lengths, they were very convincing winners. Also looking most convincing was the gelding Bee Sting, who provided English jockey John Carroll with his first win of the season, in this his first ride. Jaqi Wickham underlined her training skills with Arabian horses, by sending out the son of ZT Ali Baba in excellent condition to break a seven-race win drought.

 Carroll, who works for Godolphin at Al Quoz during Winter, had one of his busiest seasons in the UK this summer where he rode over 700 races, winning 66. Interestingly Bee Sting won his first two starts last season before fading away to claim only one more place on the board, when he ran third to For One at Nad Al Sheba in March.