Gassim Ghazali

The bulk of the 271 horses offered on day one of the Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale at Tattersalls were sold to continue their careers abroad, including the 375,000gns August George (Night Of Thunder), who was snapped up by Qatari-based trainer Gassim Ghazali.  Runner-up to subsequent Group 3 scorer Dorset (Wootton Bassett) in the Goffs Million, the Ivan Furtado-trained juvenile boasted one of the most attractive profiles on Monday and the market responded suitably with Ghazali - a regular visitor to Park Paddocks - outlasting a number of leading buyers on the...

Wrapping up Day 29 in Qatar, the final race on the Thursday card brought together a well-matched field of 3-year-old colts that were vying for a black-type prize. After a pair of scratches, out of the remaining 16 runners, Emperor Maximus proved best, but it was not a foregone conclusion that he would be able to make the leap in company after campaigning on-track at lower levels on three prior occasions. Just last week Dec. 22, the colt won a handicap against 13 others by 1 3/4 lengths, but he...