Dubai World Cup: Ernst Oertel targets final-straight flourish

DUBAI // Ernst Oertel aims to apply the gilt to his maiden UAE championship season by striking for Abu Dhabi on Dubai World Cup night on Saturday.

The Al Asayl trainer was effectively crowned UAE champion trainer at Jebel Ali on Friday and has five runners across the US$27.25 million (Dh100m) card at Meydan Racecourse.

Oertel runs the thoroughbreds Capital Attraction in the Godolphin Mile, Ganas in the Al Quoz Sprint and Averroes in the Dubai Gold Cup for Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa, but is also well represented in the Dubai Kahayla Classic for Purebred Arabians.

Seraphin Du Paon bids to make up for his defeat to TM Fred Texas in the 2,000m contest 12 months ago, while TM Junior Johnson, a full brother to last year's winner, will also run for the South African trainer in the Group 1 event.

Both horses are owned by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE, and Oertel would like nothing more than to cap his campaign by delivering the Ruler of Abu Dhabi a winner on the most valuable night in international racing.

"For Abu Dhabi people it would be great," Oertel told The National. "There is always this Abu Dhabi versus Dubai rivalry and it would be a dream for our owners to have a winner on World Cup night. It would be great for the Al Asayl team - you can see it means a lot to them, too."

Oertel's success at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club in tandem with the jockey Tadhg O'Shea this season has been the foundation to his championship bid.

Sheikh Khalifa sits on top of the owners standings ahead of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed and between them the two owners have won more races than the next six in the standings.

Overall Oertel leads Musbah Al Muhairi by one winner. He boasts more second-placed finishers than his nearest rival, who saddles only Russian Rock in the Al Quoz Sprint on Saturday and Ali Rashid Al Raihe, who trails Oertel by three winners, does not have the numbers at Meydan to bridge the gap.

"I told Tadhg he would be champion jockey at the beginning of the season," Oertel said.

"He probably thought I was being big-headed and clever but I know the tracks better and my training facility better this season so hopefully we can have a good campaign next year as well."

For now though, Oertel's efforts will be channelled towards trying to add to his haul of four winners at the region's flagship track.

As far as his thoroughbred runners are concerned, Oertel was most sweet about the chances of Ganas, who switches to turf and 1,000m for the first time this season. In three runs at Meydan this year the five year old has been leading at the 900-metre mark only to be overhauled as he failed to see out 1,200m.

"We always wanted to run him over 1,000 but because he was improving over 1,200 we thought we would stick with what we know," Oertel said.

"Literally the last fifty he just dies so hopefully the Al Quoz is perfect for him. The firmer the surface the better and as he almost broke the track record at Meydan, so let's see."

sports@thenational.ae

Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

Dubai World Cup: Ernst Oertel targets final-straight flourish

Champion trainer stokes rivalry between Abu Dhabi and Dubai ahead of Dubai World Cup night.

Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?