A lightning-fast first thoroughbred winner on Amir Sword day

Does lightning ever strike in the desert? With HH The Amir Sword day transferred to Al Uqda racecourse and run a day late, we had to wait to find out – but found the answer when Wathnan’s Newmarket-trained speedster Rogue Lightning shipped in to take the Qatar season’s top speed test, the Dukhan Sprint.

The five-year-old had raced with much credit, but no wins, last season, frequently in the highest grade. Racing around a bend for the first time under a patient ride from French ace Mickael Barzalona, Rogue Lightning relished this course and distance. Trainer Tom Clover said in the prelims than he wanted his gelding to find as much trouble in running as possible: ‘He thrives on the competition and loves to be in a scrap.’ Barzalona carried out those instructions to the letter, breaking slowly, rounding the bend on the rail, switching out and challenging between rivals before stretching a length clear at the post.

There were joyous scenes in the winners’ enclosure, with the popular trainer and handsome bay joined by many from the Wathnan team. The scene was stolen, however, by Nasser, young son of top Qatari jockey Faleh Bughenaim, who led in Rogue Lightning and posed at his head, arm aloft. Champion Purebred Arabian Abbes had, of course, famously lifted the HH The Amir’s Sword itself in 2023, but this was Wathnan’s first thoroughbred winner on this, Qatar’s most prestigious race day.