Trainer Beverley Deutrom shows why horse racing could use a woman’s touch

As a sign of how meritocratic Purebred Arabian racing can be, female trainers such as Deutrom are at Dubai International Arabian Race Day and are competing for parity with the men, writes Geoffrey Riddle.

Beverley Deutrom, right, with jockey Matt Stanley after winning the President of the UAE Cup with Lahoob at the Curragh in 2014. Courtesy Debbie Burt / Equine Creative Media

Beverley Deutrom can train any animal, it seems. In the mid-1990s when the now-Purebred Arabian handler was considering quitting Britain for a new life in Australia she taught five-month-old puppies to act for the film 101 Dalmatians, starring Hollywood icon Glenn Close.

At the time Deutrom had drifted from job to job, being an air hostess here, a saddlery business there. She had no experience for such a role, but far from making a dogs dinner of it, within no time she had them bustling up to a mark and pretending to speak among a plethora of tasks.

Sitting around her kitchen table in Nutley, halfway between London and the south coast of England, she recalls fondly those days on set.

“It was amazing,” she says. “I knew absolutely nothing about training dogs. A friend called me up and asked if I could train them. I told her I knew nothing about them, but I got the job anyway with a creative CV and on my first day there were puppies [making a mess] everywhere, and I thought, what had I done?”

Deutrom clearly has an affinity with animals, however, and on Sunday nine of the 12 horses in her yard will line up at the Dubai International Arabian Race Day in an effort to better the one-two she secured last year in the concluding handicap with Kao Kat MHF and Maghazi.

Next Saturday Lahoob and Furry take their chance in the £400,000 (Dh1.92 million) Qatar International Stakes. It is the most important week in her calendar – Dubai Day at Newbury for the prestige, the Qatar International at Glorious Goodwood for the money.

Dubai Day is the only race meeting in the world where there are three Group 1 races restricted to Purebred Arabians. As perhaps a sign of how meritocratic Purebred Arabian racing can be, of the 24 horses declared across the Zaabeel International Stakes, the Hatta Stakes and the feature International Stakes half of them are trained by women.

Deutrom is represented by Kao Kat MHF in the Zaabeel and the fascinating Bakir De Flauzins in the International. Prominent names flocking to the Berkshire racecourse include Diana Dorenberg and Kim Augenbroe, who hail from Holland.

Maria Hagman-Eriksson comes from Sweden. Elizabeth Bernard will cross the Channel from her base in south-west France while the likes of Georgina Ward lie in wait as the domestic defence.

It is a rare occurrence to have women competing at parity with men at the top level in any sport, but to have the runners of the three Group 1s split evenly between men and women is extraordinary.

Meritocracy it may be, but you could argue that due to the low profile of Purebred Arabian racing less pressure means more openings for women.

Deutrom, 52, who is divorced, and lives with her two children, is having none of it.

“Arabian horses and animals in general respond better to women, definitely,” she says, eyes burning brightly. “You see it a lot. Women have a maternal instinct, so they understand animals better, whereas men just want to get in there and get the job done.”

Deutrom’s grandfather had National Hunt horses with the legendary trainer Fred Winter but as a youngster she showed little interest in racing, despite loving horses.

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She graduated through Pony Club and Eventing, and got in to Purebred Arabian racing when her mother took her to a horse auction where she gained an understanding of the commercial side of the business.

When she was 26 she bought her first horse, Phritz. Without a trainer, she took on the horse herself. Without a jockey, she rode it herself, too, and won three races at Uttoxeter racecourse twice and Great Yarmouth racecourse. Smitten with the electric feeling of riding and winning, she went back to the source and bought the full brother, Pharitz.

Having won the Sweihan Stakes Deutrom realised her own riding ability would not match the heights that her mount might climb, and she quit the saddle there and then.

“Trying to do the weight was horrendous, and actually, looking at it I was a [rubbish] rider,” she says. “I wanted to win so much, and I wanted him to win so much that it just wasn’t worth it.”

Pharitz was so good that Deutrom’s phone rang white hot and eventually the Qatari Al Thani family came calling and made her a deal she could not refuse. In 1997 she moved to her current stables, where there are boxes for 19, a modest outdoor riding area and trail paths through nearby Ashdown Forest where she gallops her horses. This is not a state of the art facility.

When a real workout is needed, she uses nearby Lingfield’s all-weather surface or the punishing uphill climb owned by Nick Pearce, who pre-trains horses for Michael Stoute.

Deutrom times all of her gallops, to make sure the work riders remain honest more than anything, and that morning Lahoob and Furry pass their final preparations with flying colours.

It was not until 2011, however, that Deutrom’s first proper training job came around when she was summoned to Oman and, needing the money, off she went to work for Sheikh Salim Al Fairuz.

After moderate success there, she was courted by her current principal patron, Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al Hashar, an Omani businessman and four consecutive seasons split between her current stables in Britain and Desert Stables in Dubai ensued. To underline her persistent nature it took her 60 runners before Maghazi, who runs in the 2,400-metre handicap, got her off the mark in the UAE. She has now saddled horses in eight different countries, chasing the limited money within the sport.

Deutrom has never won the International Stakes but in Bakir De Flauzins she may well have a horse capable of doing so. Bought for €23,000 (Dh92,720) in Saint-Cloud sale in October, the lightly-raced five-year-old son of Dahess has the talent, but perhaps not the mind to land Sunday’s £55,000 feature event. Bakir De Flauzins advertised both his ability and his quirkiness when he held off stablemate Amaar 17 days ago over the same 2,000m course as on Sunday.

Bakir shied away from the whip of jockey Ryan Tate, who will surely have learned from that experience, but when it mattered most he got his head out in front to be a neck ahead at the post.

“We had three horses in the school yesterday and he was just on it the whole time, whereas the others were just taking it easy,” Deutrom says of the bay son of Dahess. “When you gallop him he doesn’t give very much – he doesn’t really want to do it. You have to keep asking him and then he will keep on giving.

“It would not have been a battle if he had kept his mind on the job – he probably would have wiped the floor with Amaar. He did fight for the race, though, but you can definitely say he is quirky. He now has proved that he goes on any ground, so he if he keeps concentrating he has a good chance.

“Of all the horses in the race I fear Muraaqib the most. He was the world’s top-rated Purebred Arabian juvenile colt last year, who is a Group 1 winner.”

As Deutrom has already proved countless times, however, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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