Fields have been confirmed for the first two races of the £550,000 Bahrain Turf Series on Friday. One of 16 in the seven-furlong £50,000 Al Manama Cup is Natural Path (Ire) (Toronado {Ire}), one of two from Michael Bell for the opening card. His stablemate Ace Rothstein (More Than Ready) is bound for the £50,000 1 1/4-mile Al Muharraq Cup later on the card, which features 15 horses. Bell's son Nick is on hand to oversee the five-time winner and dual scorer, respectively.
Nick Bell said of Natural Path, “He had a productive summer over six furlongs and showed all the right credentials to be a horse who might be suited to Bahrain in the sense that he has good gate speed and travels strongly. Kieran Shoemark is going to take the ride and we're hopeful of a big run from him.”
Bell added of Ace Rothstein, who gains local jockey Lee Newman, “He is a horse that stays well, likes fast ground and we're happy with the condition he's come in. After he won a couple of races he was raised quite a bit in the handicap so then we started to look at international races for him and we think he is a suitable candidate as they have a good programme for 10-furlong horses over here.”
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