Jebel Ali Racecourse opens its gates on Friday night for first meet of the UAE horse racing season.
The six-race card meet, the traditional opener for the season, will be followed by next Thursday’s action at Meydan and Sunday’s racing at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.
Meydan will host 20 meetings this season, including the Dubai World Cup Carnival, which runs for 11 weeks starting January 7 with prize money of US$39.8 million (Dh146.1m) and concludes with the racing’s richest night, the $30m Dubai World Cup, on March 26.
Abu Dhabi will stage 15 meetings and starts with a bang, with the Group 1 Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown, Sunday’s feature race and the world’s richest race for Purebred Arabians, and also includes the two main supporting races the IFAHR Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship and the Apprentice Championship.
According to Pat Buckley, racing manager at Abu Dhabi, the capital’s turf track is in its best condition in 21 years.
“There has been limitless work gone on to bring this track to the level it is now,” he said.
Off track, Frenchman Eric Lemartinel has replaced Ernst Oertel, the two-time UAE champion trainer, at Al Asayl Stables, which runs horses owned by the President, Sheikh Khalifa.
Some new faces on the circuit this season are Chris Hayes, the Irishman who joins as stable jockey for the Jebel Ali trainer Dhruba Selvaratam, David Probert links up with Erwan Charpy and the apprentice Hector Crouch moves to the Zabeel Stables under trainer Satish Seemar as the second rider behind the UAE champion Richard Mullen.
There will be 62 meetings in total staged across five venues: Meydan, Abu Dhabi, Jebel Ali, Al Ain and Sharjah.
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