IT'S COLD IN THE DESERT SUN

President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan receives President Jacob Zuma
(Photo : Emirates 24/7)

“Call it conspiracy if you like…”

In a bid to free up the travel restrictions on South African-bred horses, several members of our local racing community accompanied President Jacob Zuma and his advisors on a mission to the United Arab Emirates this past week. It’s a remarkable irony that throughout the Empire wars, South Africa was a welcome supplier of more than half a million horses to the colonial cause. These animals were a vital part of the British conquest of faraway lands, and none of them were fortunate enough to return to their homeland. Whilst African Horse Sickness, the reason behind the present ban on the movement of our horses internationally, was as prevalent in those days (and more so because of the lack of scientific prevention), as it is today, none of our equine exports of that era ever transmitted the disease to the countries they went to.

The reason was simple. The horses were “quarantined” on the ships they were transported on, and if they were carrying the disease, by the time they disembarked, they were either over it, or had perished en route. South Africa has gone to extraordinary lengths to safeguard by scientific means and by use of vector proof quarantines, to treble, nay quadruple, the measures for the prevention of the transmission of the disease. Yet the world seems unmoved by these efforts. It is difficult to concede that the only reason behind this, is a fear on the part of the recipient countries that they might be contaminated by the movement of our horses. Call it conspiracy if you like, but there is a strong feeling among South African horsemen these days, that we’ve become victims of our own success.

South African horses have performed so well wherever they’ve competed, not only our racehorses, whose successes are well documented, but also in the realms of endurance, polo, show jumping etc. Our endurance horses have for several decades now, ranked among the very top echelons of their species in the world, and frustrating the export of South African horses is certainly a means of keeping the competition out of the way.

Because of this country’s long standing ties with the UAE, and especially Dubai, and the success of our horses in that jurisdiction, President Zuma made a special effort to address this particular matter at round table meetings with high ranking officials of the various emirates, including the President himself. It’s a matter of pride to know that our own customer and friend, Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, was a party to those talks, and South Africans are pinning their hopes on his influence in pioneering the re-entry of our horses to their markets. The problem is, he’s been the success story of racing in the Middle East with his South African runners, and as we’ve said already, the likes of Igugu, and Bold Silvano might not be that welcome in what is already a highly competitive environment.

DUBAI’S WOES: WHERE DO WE GO?

Meydan Racecourse in Dubai
(Photo : www.meydan.ae)

DUBAI’S ECONOMIC TURNDOWN

You can imagine that with Summerhill’s connection with the Ruling Family in Dubai going back twenty years this coming February, our phone lines have been burning with inquisitive pressmen wanting to know the state of the nation. While most of it has already been displayed in technicolor across the television screens of the world, we have a different perspective. Ours is to do with horses, and a recollection of a contribution from the late Sheikh Maktoum’s Gainsborough Stud and the present Deputy Ruler, Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stud which, to the degree that they raised the bar in the quality of horses they were sending to South Africa, changed the face of breeding in this country irretrievably.

While it’s not the Arab way to speak out about these things, (which means there’ll be any amount of conjecture), our confident guess is that the UAE in general and Abu Dhabi in particular, will not let Dubai stand alone. That being the case, while it won’t quite be business as usual, we fully expect the Maktoum family’s influence over affairs in the Middle East especially, and across the world as well, to continue, albeit in a more subtle fashion for the time being.

Of course, the doomsayers will claim that Dubai’s dilemma will trigger a second wave of extreme recession, and given the austerity that will flow from the departure of expatriates from the Emirate and the envitable lay-offs that must follow, things will never be quite the same again. You’d be underestimating Sheikh Mohammed if you thought that, and we believe you’d be underestimating the resolve of the UAE as well, to stand together.

Nonetheless, from a horseman’s perspective, it’s the last thing you’d want, notwithstanding the envy their worldwide dominance attracts. We doubt that even their strongest competitors, Coolmore, would see it in anybody’s interests that the Maktoum equine empire should suffer, because that would have implications for the balance sheets of every single player in the game. The Maktoums have not only been central to the creation of records in thoroughbred value, in international auction markets and in the promotion of racing itself, they employ many thousands of horsemen and other personnel in their stud farms, their auction companies, their publishing businesses and their racing yards, across the length and breadth of the world. It would be catastrophic for the industry if this were to come to an end, or for that matter, suffer any measurable diminution.

The Maktoum family’s intervention in racing some thirty five years has altered the course of our sport unrecognisably, and we’re the better for it. We all need to be hoping that things will settle, as the financial press are beginning to suggest, and that the Dubai World Cup for record prize money next March, will take its place at the new Meydan facility as scheduled.

If events at the Tattersall’s Foal sale of the last week are anything to go by, John Ferguson, acting for Sheikh Mohammed, was the biggest buyer yet again in a surprisingly buoyant market, which suggests that at the very least, the Maktoum family’s personal finances appear to be in good order. That said, buyers in general at the sale were as intrepid as ever, best described by Sheikh Hamdan’s racing manager, Angus Gold, as “extraordinary trade in an extraordinary business”.

FIRST STOP DUBAI

Dubai Skyline
(Photo: Joe Brokerhoff)

Where you’d be forgiven for believing, if it weren’t prescribed subject matter at every mealtime, that talk of plunging markets and financial destitude, were not just that: “talk”.

In the rudest of good health (at 8kgs trimmer than we last found him), and on a twelve week “wagon”, STRONGHOLD’s investor, Rupert Plersch was in great form with a sparkling new set of Jaguar wheels, while Herman Brown Jnr’s adherent, Terry Bowley shares Rupert’s fondness of South Africa.

These are two extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs, whose enterprise has lured them to a far away land in search of a world that has not only brought financial reward, but a way of life that has opened their lives to the broader reaches of the earth.

MIKE DE KOCK tours Sheikh Mohammed's new stables at Al Awir, Dubai

Sheikh Mohammed shows Mike de Kock 86m swimming poolSheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum has added nine big new stables to the existing complex near his Palace at Al Awir, Dubai, which Mike de Kock recently had the privilege of touring.

There are now 25 stables on the premises. The nine new stables include a huge “main bedroom’’ where Sheikh Mohammed intends to rest his top horses when needed. Each stable has rubberized flooring, aircon and a big manger. The older stables are covered in palm leaves, the topping serves as natural air control, retaining heat in winter and allowing fresh, colder air to flow in, in summer.

Also on the property is a state-of-the-art horse walker, overlooked by a wooden deck built on a pumphouse that feeds the property with water.

A large paddock and an 86m swimming pool, the longest horse pool in Dubai until recently, completes the complex. Sheikh Mohammed keeps his recovering racehorses and several Arabian horses on this property.

Extract from Mike de Kock Racing.com