Tadhg O’Shea crowned UAE champion jockey for 10th time after 'remarkable season'

Tadhg O’Shea and Bhupat Seemar were officially crowned the UAE champion jockey and trainer, respectively, at Abu Dhabi’s final and the season’s penultimate meeting on Thursday.

The Irishman was winning an unprecedented 10th jockeys' title while Seemar was celebrating his first title after taking out his licence in November, filling for his uncle Satish Seemar at the Zabeel Stables.

O’Shea completed a double to take his tally to 67 and extend his lead over Antonio Fresu to 10 ahead of Friday’s final meeting, a seven-race card in Al Ain.

He rode the Ernst Oertel-trained AF Ramz to victory in the third race and completed the double half an hour later on board Reem Baynounah for the Sudanese handler Mohamed Daggash.

O’Shea described sealing his 10th jockeys’ title, riding 67 winners and a first thoroughbred Group 1 winner at the Dubai World Cup as his greatest ever season.

He also thanked Oertel and Khalid Khalifa Al Naboodah, for whom he’s the retained rider, as well as trainer Seemar and the whole team at Zabeel Stables, where he is in his first year as stable jockey.

“I’m very fortunate to ride for two powerful stables, and numerically it’s my best season and I never had so many rides in a season,” the champion jockey said.

"It’s been an amazing year and the 10th championship is very special. I turn 40 in February and it gets harder every year. Antonio pushed me all the way. We managed to pull away in the last couple of weeks.”

O’Shea insisted he doesn’t set himself targets but looked forward to returning to the Zabeel Stables and riding again for Al Naboodah.

“Both stables have had an amazing season and they are going to finish first and second in the championship, which is great,” he added. “They had a good tussle