It was a dramatic night on Sunday for the Bouresly Racing Syndicate and more particularly, for Rashid Bouresly, when Conceal gave them their biggest accomplishment on the race course - The His Highness The President-s Cup. Conceal, who finished fourth in Jebel Ali on Friday was a reserve, but grabbed the chance by replacing Orchestrated in the quality field of runners to romp home and give Rashid Bouresly a win within 48 hours after the Kuwaiti horse-lover, owner and syndicate partner, was given his trainer-s license in the UAE. "It was a good horse, with a good jockey which gave us a very good result yesterday," said Rashid, speaking to Gulf News yesterday. "The Cup that has the name of the UAE President is indeed a great honour and proud achievement for us," said Rashid as the Kuwaiti-owned syndicate registered their third success this season.

Gary Hind, who was to ride Orchestrated, was roped in by Rashid and the reigning champion jockey of the UAE did well to help Conceal outclass a field in which 10 of the 12 runners were rated higher than the winner. "Though I have been training horses for over 20 years, officially I got the license only on Saturday and to get into the winner-s enclosure on Sunday is a very proud moment for us," said the member of the Bouresly Racing Syndicate after his brother Dr. Fouzi received the handsome trophy.

The trainer-cum-owner, however, had a Bahraini license where he has some of his horses stabled while his Kuwaiti license is also not valid here. Rashid gave credit to the horse while describing the brave move to run the horse for the second time in three days. "Conceal is a class horse, but had lost favour because we made a few mistakes with him. We tried him over longer distances and that is also a reason why his rating dropped below 100. But after looking weak, following his stint in the UK, he is in good shape and also likes turf better. We have also realised that between six and seven furlongs is his best," said Rashid.

"Most of our horses are now in good shape and ready so we decided to run Conceal so soon," he added. The Boureslys are a well-known family of horse-lovers in Kuwait, but the war upset their breeding programme. "We used to breed horses in Kuwait before the war and we had 10 stallions and have bred around 300 horses," said Rashid. "But with the racing scenario still weak in Kuwait after the war, we can buy from outside and we now have a good string of youngsters coming up," he said. Rashid Bouresly currently has 18 horses with him here and another three under Karthi Selvaratnam in Sharjah. He plans to bring four -well-bred- horses soon from Kuwait for the Carnival. Commenting on the future of his current trainer Richard Alford, Rashid said, "He is more a friend of ours and we will sit and decide together what is best for us." This is the second season for the Bouresly Racing Syndicate in the UAE and it looks like they are here to enjoy a successful stay.