Another Carnival double for Charlie Appleby & William Buick

Bravo Zolo made a successful Godolphin debut when gaining a cosy win in the Zabeel Feedmill Handicap over a mile on turf and gave trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick a Dubai World Cup Carnival double at Meydan, UAE, on Saturday, February 11.
 
The five-year-old, who captured a French Listed contest in October before joining Godolphin, broke smartly under William Buick and raced in fourth early on among the 14 runners before moving up to settle in a close second after the first quarter-mile.
 
He travelled strongly to take over the advantage with two and a half furlongs left and soon kicked clear of the field, running on to score by a length and a half from Suyoof in 1m 36.47s.
 
Charlie Appleby declared: “This was a very, very pleasing performance.
 
“He has been putting in good work at home and had been very consistent on the racecourse before joining me.
 
“He could drop back in distance next time which would give him another opportunity at the Carnival.”
 
William Buick commented: “It was a perfect start for Bravo Zolo. Obviously, it was his first run for a while and it was a nice performance.
 
“He travels very well and, in these tactical affairs, he is a joy to ride because he is such a versatile horse. You can go wherever you want whenever you want - he is going to travel well and see it out well.
 
“He is a very strong traveller, is in a great place mentally and has been training well.”
 
Comicas, who failed to make the final field for a turf handicap two days beforehand, gained compensation on dirt when making virtually all to win the six-furlong the Track Meydan Golf Handicap from nine rivals.
 
The Charlie Appleby-trained four-year-old son of Distorted Humor, third in a seven-furlong dirt handicap at the course on December 29, showed good speed from the stalls to take a narrow advantage under William Buick after a furlong.
                                                                                   
Comicas went for home at the top of the straight. He drifted right inside the final furlong, briefly impeding runner-up Dundonell, before running on to prevail by a length in 1m 11.78s, with a break of four and a half lengths back to Shaishee in third.
 
Charlie Appleby said: “Comicas ran a creditable race to finish third on the dirt here in December.
 
“I was very pleased with the gate speed he showed that day, when he hit the lids well and travelled nicely.
 
“It was just the last furlong that he lugged away but I wasn’t sure if it was the petrol running out slightly, which is why we dropped him back to six furlongs tonight.
 
“His work on the turf has been particularly good, so I was hoping to get into the turf handicap on Thursday night but he got balloted out and we went to Plan B. Thankfully, it has paid off, but I still think he will prove better on turf.”