DUBAI // Between them, the Godolphin trainers Saeed bin Suroor and Mahmoud Al Zarooni saddle four of the 14 runners in tomorrow's Dubai World Cup.
None of those horses are considered among the pre-race favourites, but the training duo said that is exactly the way they like it.
"For me the horses to beat are So You Think and Game On Dude. These are the best two horses in the race," Al Zarooni said.
He sends Capponi, the Al Maktoum Challenge Round III winner, and Monterosso, the Dubai City of Gold victor, to the post for the US$10 million (Dh36.7m) race. Bin Suroor saddles Prince Bishop and Mendip. Al Zarooni considers it a bonus that his horses are not attracting as much attention as Aiden O'Brien's charge So You Think or the American raider Game On Dude.
"We are outsiders and I prefer outsider - no pressure," he said yesterday. "When you are the favourite it is very difficult. You have to win with the favourite, but if you have the outsider and you lose then you've lost nothing."
And Al Zarooni said he does not think that his horses are without a chance of claiming Godolphin's sixth Dubai World Cup, a race that the Dubai racing operation has not won since 2006.
"Obviously I think they have a chance otherwise they would not be in the race," he said. "That's why we are here."
Capponi is to be ridden by Ahmed Ajtebi, Godolphin's Emirati jockey.
"Capponi is improving after each race but the way he won the Maktoum Challenge for me was a big improvement," said Al Zarooni, whose charge beat Doug Watson's World Cup contender Silver Pond on that occasion.
"We are very happy with him and he's a front-runner which is why I put Ahmed on him because I think he is good in front.
"I think Mikail Barzalona will sit behind a bit more and wait so to have them the other way round would be wrong."
Barzalona partners Monterosso, who ran third behind the Japanese horses Victoire Pisa and Transcend in last year's Dubai World Cup.
"We ran him once this season and he needed the race and Mikail didn't push him," Al Zarooni said. "He finished fourth and we brought him home and afterwards we saw that he was moving much better for it. I don't know if he's a better horse than he was last year but I can say that he is at the same level."
Bin Suroor said both his World Cup runners were heading in the right direction.
"Prince Bishop won a big handicap on his first time out. He was third in the third round of the Maktoum Challenge. He's an improving horse and Frankie Dettori is pleased with how he's going."
Mendip is also expected to put up a good showing under Silvestre de Sousa.
"They are both good horses," bin Suroor said. "Mendip won the Al Maktoum Challenge Round II but in his last run he got quite upset and was kicking the gate but when we got him home he was much better and we are pleased with his progress."
Bin Suroor, who has won a record five Dubai World Cups and was the most successful trainer in the Carnival this season, said it was not an easy race to win.
"Everybody knows that in the past Godolphin won five times but this is the hardest and most difficult race to win. It has the best horses in the world but we have four horses in the race and we hope that we can win," he said.
Bin Suroor said his best chance of victory on the World Cup card will come from African Story, who will be ridden by Dettori in the Godolphin Mile. Al Zarooni felt most confident about Opinion Poll, who also goes under Dettori, in the Dubai Gold Cup.
"This is a race that we can win," said Al Zarooni of the horse that finished second to bin Suroor's Gold Cup rival, Fox Hunt, in the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy. "Opinion Poll needed the run, and has come on for it. He's fitter now, and I think he represents our best chance."
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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