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”.

HORSE OF THE YEAR HAT-TRICK

Hear The Drums
(Photo : Wally Strydom)

(Please click photo to enlarge…)

“HEAR THE DRUMS”

While it may have been a foregone conclusion that Hear The Drums would win his third consecutive Horse Of The Year title in the Eastern Cape, you never want to be complacent about these things. Summerhill’s association with that part of the world is not coincidental: it’s a matter of birth. The boss grew up in Pondoland in the erstwhile Transkei, and while he’s now a nationalised “Zulu”, his staff still say that when he’s cross, his language is unmistakably the language of that part of the world, Xhosa.

So it’s a matter of some affection then, that we celebrate six of the past eight Horse of the Year titles, courtesy of Brigadier Parker (two), Paris Perfect (who glorified South Africa with his effort in this year’s Dubai World Cup), and now Hear The Drums (three).

Hot off the press, the latest issue of Parade Magazine carries the Hear The Drums story, so we’ll not impinge on their territory.  Since it’s topical though, and you wouldn’t want to leave a good story untold, he is a graduate of the Ready To Run (now the Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run), and he has only six wins to go to equal the all-time South African record of 30 victories. While six wins is more than a lifetime in most horse’s careers, for a fellow with 26 under his belt already, it’s not entirely beyond him.

Hear The Drums didn’t only win the Horse Of The Year title; he also took the Champion Sprinter and Champion Older Horse titles, in the latter category from his fellow Summerhill paddock mate, Vangelis.

INVESTEC SPONSORS ONE OF THE WORLD’S BIG FIVE

“Investec to sponsor English Derby”

Ask any student of racing twenty years ago which the greatest racing event in the world was, and they would’ve unhesitatingly answered the English Derby. Today the title is a vigorous contest between the “Derby” (as it’s commonly known), Paris’ Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Dubai’s World Cup, the Melbourne Cup, the Kentucky Derby, and perhaps the Japan Cup. Certainly, if not alone the greatest, the English Derby stands apart as the most famous.

For all that, who would ever have expected an upstart South African bank to become the Derby’s sponsor? Upstart, did we say? Yes, in global terms that’s probably an apt description, but Investec has always been an innovator, a “breed-shaper”, as we might term it in racing parlance, and that’s exactly what the local banking pacemaker agreed to this week for the next five years.

No doubt, the hand of Bernard Kantor, avid racing man and the fellow that bought us Count Dubois, was more than prominent in this relationship, which follows a £38 million revamp of the Derby’s home, Epsom Downs.

Did we leave out another marquee event when we counted the “big five”? Yes, we probably did, and that’s Royal Ascot’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, which for almost two decades was sponsored by South Africa’s De Beers. The difference here is that, at the time, De Beers happened to be the world’s biggest diamond producer, whilst Investec has a way to go before it can claim the same status in the banking world. Maybe, just maybe, this is a precursor of what’s to come.

Well done, Investec. From one champion team to another, we salute you.

Hong Kong Champions Mile Group 1 : POST MORTEM

Champions Mile Gr1 2009
Sha Tin, Hong Kong

Mike de Kock is back in South Africa, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The man is a national treasure, and when it comes to the reputation of South African racehorses and their exportability, nobody’s done more for the game. We picked up on him shortly after he landed, and his feelings about Imbongi’s run (he finished just on two lengths behind the winner), was that he would’ve been a lot closer had he not lost ground on the bend. There was no explanation for it, other than the horse had a little bit of the “slows” midway through the race, yet he ran on resolutely, to get within two lengths of the winner, winding up 6^th with a cheque in hand.

Mike’s feeling is that the setbacks his horses suffered in Dubai in the month leading to the World Cup, left them a little short in terms of their preparations, and he feels we’ll see a good bit of improvement when they start up their motors in England in the next month or two. Stay with us, there’ll be more to come from Imbongi.

Countdown to Dubai World Cup Extravaganza

Art Of War
(Photo : ERA) 

R250 MILLION AT STAKE:
WHO’LL GET THE LION’S SHARE?

Sheikh Mohammed’s great racing extravaganza goes to the wire on Saturday evening. The racing programmes of most countries have taken centuries to sculpt, yet the Maktoum Family have managed to put together our sport’s most spectacular showpiece in a matter of a decade. Whatever else the Dubai World Cup meeting may be, it’s the undisputed leader in prize money. Simply put, it is racing’s richest day.

South African-connected horses have developed an enviable record through the exploits mainly of Mike de Kock and his compatriot, Herman Brown Jnr, in the past six or seven seasons. In two of the past three years, Mike de Kock singlehandedly took home a third of the evening’s six prizes, and last year, between him and Herman Brown, they accounted for 50% (or three) of the night’s best entertainment. What that equated to in Rand earnings, we’re not sure, but it must’ve been close to R50 million, a number that would’ve had a number of the world’s top racing countries sneezing.

Whichever way you look at it, what it did signal was the arrival, once and for all, of South Africa’s horses and South Africa’s horsemen on the world racing stage, and we have the exploits of these fellows to thank for the fact that our stock, about to go to the Emperor’s Palace National Yearling Sales, are now firmly in the sights of anyone looking for a good horse at a fair price. South African horses have no peers when it comes to value, simple as that.

Back to Saturday evening’s events, it’s unfortunate Imbongi won’t be lining up for the $5 million Dubai Duty Free, so he’ll be going to Hong Kong for the Group One mile a fresh horse, if that’s any consolation.

However, there’ll still be two graduates of the farm in action at a meeting which commences at 5pm, the first of which is Art Of War, who’ll be doing battle for the country in the $2 million Godolphin Mile. He’s been one of the revelations of the Dubai Carnival, and we’re looking for a bold showing from this nuggety little son of the emerging giant among South African sires, Kahal.

Muhtafal is represented by Gail Fabricius’ Summerhill-bred and raised Paris Perfect, erstwhile Horse Of The Year in the Eastern Cape. It will come as no small boost to that regions racing to know that a horse that started out in Port Elizabeth, has made the cut for the richest race in the world from his new base in Saudi Arabia, from whence we’re hearing good things from his trainer, Neil Bruss, about his prospects. Let’s not forget, he takes on some of the best horses in the world at a distance which is arguably further than his optimum, but you can never get a good man down, especially when his father is Muhtafal.

Whatever the outcome, you can bet on a great show, and we’ll all be rooting like hell from the Summerhill office when the games get underway.