DUBAI // When the name Salem bin Ghadayer appeared in the declarations for the opening night of this season's Dubai World CUp Carnival, in January, few would have expected the Emirati rookie trainer to be one of just nine conditioners to have a runner in Saturday's Dubai World Cup.
And yet that became a reality on Saturday when Long River snuck into the field for the $US10 million (Dh3.67m) event that acts as the cornerstone to the nine-race card at Meydan Racecourse.
Long River is one of four horses from Bin Ghadayer’s fledgling string who will represent Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed on the night. All four horses will be ridden by former Godolphin jockey Mickael Barzalona.
Frankyfourfingers seeks his second victory this season in the Godolphin Mile, while Rio Tigre will take his chance in the Dubai Gold Cup. The grey Earnshaw lines up in the Dubai Turf.
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Bin Ghadayer has only 28 horses, but he has impressed by staying close to the established order at the Carnival to finish fifth in the standings at Meydan this season, with five winners.
To be behind stalwarts such as Doug Watson, Satish Seemar, Musabah Al Muhairi and Saeed bin Suroor is no surprise, but to be in fifth place ahead of former UAE champion Ali Rashid Al Raihe and Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby is nothing short of extraordinary.
Not since 2010, when Mahmoud Al Zarooni saddled Calming Influence to an upset win in the Godolphin Mile just a few days after he was handed a training licence, has a rookie trainer burned so brightly.
With Frankyfourfingers holding a live chance against favourite Tamarkuz in that same race, the second of the night, Bin Ghadayer will not have to wait long for his best chance.
“I have needed to check myself how well this season has gone,” Bin Ghadayer said. “I am happy about almost everything. How the horses have run, the results we’ve had, the number of horses I have.
“We are up against stables that have 100 or more horses, who have only a few runners on the night, whereas we have four runners in our first season, which is great for me, for my owner and for all my staff.
“You have to think we are going the right way about things.”
In some ways, this is one of those heart-warming, rags-to-riches narratives of the sort surrounding California Chrome in the World Cup, but it must be remembered who powers the Bin Ghadayer operation.
Sheikh Hamdan is a backer for whom any new trainer would like to work; in a few months he brought in the horses Bin Ghadayer will send to the post on Saturday.
Frankyfourfingers was plucked from Christian Delcher-Sanchez’s operation in Pau, France. Rio Tigre and Earnshaw were brought in from Andre Fabre’s elite stables in Chantilly. Long River arrived from Godolphin USA trainer Kiaran McLoughlin just six weeks before the colt finished last in the third round of the Al Maktoum Challenge on Super Saturday.
With such patronage comes expectations. “I am under pressure,” Bin Ghadayer said.
“We received some of the horses at the end of October, but the rest came in December. I barely had time to start preparing for this season. We really had to push our boundaries just to get the horses to the Carnival races.
“I worked as a team with Sheikh Hamdan to choose which horses we would get here. I’m the trainer, but my style is very much to listen to everybody. Sheikh Hamdan is a very good horseman and I have listened to his advice with regards to the training programme of some horses.”
Bin Ghadayer has been operating out of Millennium Stables, but following Dubai World Cup night he will move into a new facility, the Fazza Racing Stables, a few miles south of Meydan.
His equine team will be rested, as most of them were racing in Europe or America last summer, and then will be added to in preparation for a full-scale assault on next season’s Carnival.
Bin Ghadayer, 38, has come to thoroughbred racing via endurance racing, where he was both a rider and a trainer.
He had spells as a thoroughbred racing manager, which showed that he could place horses well enough that he got his chance with Sheikh Hamdan.
He hopes for a glorious conclusion to the opening chapter of his thoroughbred training career, although rank outsider Long River will have to do much better than last time to play a part in the World Cup.
“We scoped Long River after Super Saturday and we found nothing,” he said. “He didn’t bleed, either. He moved smoothly during the race, but Richard Hughes, the jockey, just said he slowed down.
“There is no reason why he ran badly; they are animals, not machines, after all. I am 100 per cent confident he will be a different horse on World Cup night. It is a dream for me to have a horse in this race.”
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