As I clambered aboard the plane back to South Africa yesterday morning I was able to reflect on what turned out to be a long 2009 Dubai International Racing Carnival. We had our high points with more winners than anyone other than Godolphin trainer Saeed Bin Suroor. Silver Mist winning twice early on; Archipenko winning the Zabeel Mile on his first start; two wins for Diana's Choice; Bankable winning his first start for us and J J The Jet Plane bouncing back when he returned to turf were all obvious highlights.
But it was far from smooth sailing and Silver Mist was not able to run again, while Kildonan and Eagle Mountain both missed the entire carnival. Honour Devil being ruled out of the World Cup on the week of the race was also a blow. It was never going to be easy with all the construction and only one track to train on but it was the same for the other local and international trainers based at Nad Al Sheba.
As for World Cup night - well it was only the second time since I first arrived in 2003 that we did not have a winner and, in all honesty, we never really looked like having one. In the World Cup itself, Asiatic Boy was slowly into stride and found trouble early on - that scuppered his chances and he returned coughing so he was clearly not right. He and Honour Devil are likely to go to America to join Kiaran McLaughlin for the summer. They are both dirt horses and the States is the place for them. Kiaran may have also been out of luck in the World Cup but is a great trainer.
Honour Devil will probably come back here to Dubai but Asiatic Boy is likely to be retired to Argentina and it would be nice to train a few of his progeny in years to come. We probably considered Archipenko our best chance on World Cup night but he was never able to land a blow behind the imperious Gladiatorus - "Archie" was fifth, a place behind Bankable and jockey Johnny Murtagh was pretty accurate describing the winner as "a monster". He was awesome and I will be avoiding him where possible in the near future - apparently he could go to Hong Kong.
Singapore and Hong Kong are likely to be our next adventures with Archipenko. All the horses we are planning to travel go into quarantine now here in Dubai and most of those will head to the UK in just over four weeks. That gives us about six weeks to try and get a couple ready for Royal Ascot - J J The Jet Plane being the most obvious one to nominate this far in advance. We will be back for the first Meydan Carnival next year and basically, between now and then, we will be assessing our horses, sourcing new ones and aiming to ensure no World Cup night blank in 2010. A good summer from the new UK base would be a big boost and, of course, I have a large string in South Africa still to oversee.
As I keep saying - you never stop learning in this game and I am no different. It may not have been our most successful Dubai campaign but we have certainly learned from it. Hopefully with Meydan fully operational and the tapeta training track (which we have used) available things will be easier next year - though I am sure the competition will become even more fierce. We will be back with, hopefully, a bigger and stronger team?
sports@thenational.ae
