Lucander lands another big pot for George Baker as Bahrain turf series concludes

Friday: Bahrain

George Baker maintained his fine season in Bahrain when Lucander landed another lucrative success in the Gulf nation this winter with an impressive victory in the H H Sh Nasser Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa Cup.

The six-year-old, owned by Nigel Jones and Paul Bowden, was a winner of the Al Muharraq Cup in December as part of the Bahrain Turf Series, which reached its conclusion with two races on Friday's card.

Upped in class to local Grade 2 company, Lucander got daylight two furlongs out and readily went clear to win by two and three-quarter lengths under Andrea Atzeni to scoop the £66,667 first prize, taking his earnings to £114,844 in Bahrain this season.

The British and Irish-trained runners were out of luck in the final races of the series. The 6f Al Sakhir Cup was won by the Hesham Al Haddad-trained Devaste, while Atzeni landed the Vision 2030 Cup on the Haider Ebrahim-trained Goemon.

"I’ve been close in a few Turf Series races but it’s always nice to win one," Atzeni said. "They aren’t easy to win and you need the right horse, so we're lucky enough to have a horse like Goemon. For a four-year-old he is very lightly raced and he's getting better with racing."

International runners accrued £182,400 in prize-money from the turf series races this season, with Lucander, the David O'Meara-trained Nomadic Empire and Charlie Appleby-trained King Of Conquest all getting on the scoresheet for Britain.

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