Williams has all options open for Quinault after success in Qatar | At The Races

Quinault could look for further riches in the Middle East after storming to victory in Qatar this weekend.

Stuart Williams’ world traveler achieved the twelfth success of his career when he performed two places better than he did 12 months ago in the Dukhan Sprint Cup in Doha, and the Newmarket handler believes his six-year-old is still getting better and better.

Williams said: “We were obviously very happy with Quinault and he has been such a star for us.

“Last year it was a bit of a debacle there in Qatar and we got wide on a tight track and finished third, so to go out again this year and finish first was brilliant.

“We really enjoyed the trip and the horse seems to enjoy the travel too and luckily everything went well.

“He had the best race of his life when he finished third in the Champions Sprint (at Ascot) in October, so it’s no real surprise that he went there and won and to me it still looks like he’s improving.”

Williams would now like to see Quinault take his place in Meydan’s Al Quoz sprint on Dubai World Cup night, a Group 1 race in which he finished seventh last year.

However, Williams has set aside just under £170,000 for his success in Qatar and plans to use the bounty to ensure the versatile operator has a host of options in 2026.

Williams added: “I nominated him for the Al Quoz and we will cross the bridge if we get into it when we get there.

“But there will be plenty of targets for him and one of the ideas about going to Doha was that the prize money is so good that it gives us the opportunity to take part in all these big races and it doesn’t hurt the wallet that much.

“It can be expensive to get into the big races and obviously conditions mean you might not want to run anymore, so at least we now have a cat to play with and he gets entries in all the races in the top six and seven furlongs and we will certainly have a lot of fun with him again this year.”