INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
FEBRUARY 26, 2014
Racing festivities kick off in Qatar
by Michele MacDonald
A bevy of international guests, including Maryland Jockey Club
representatives Tom Chuckas and Karin De Francis, English-based trainers John
Gosden and Richard Hannon Jr. and French jockey Olivier Peslier, celebrated with
the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club in Doha on Tuesday as the three-day
International Racing Festival began with rousing sport and a glittering
black-tie gala dinner. From near dawn until almost midnight, the guests were
entertained with a visit to the famous Al Shahania Stud, a full program of
racing and then lavish dining and entertainment at a ballroom in the Ritz
Carlton Doha.
Many took the opportunity to explore business possibilities with the Qataris,
with De Francis and Chuckas promoting the Preakness Stakes program while
interviewed on in-house television during the races. De Francis said she hopes
there can be some synergies between Qatari entities — which already back major
racing and sporting events in Europe, including the British Champion Series and
the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Weekend — and the Preakness.
“We’re very honored and privileged to be here,” said De Francis, a consultant
with the Maryland Jockey Club. Chuckas, president of the organization, added
that the experience has definitely been “on our bucket list.”
During the racing program, De Francis and Chuckas were introduced to QREC
Chairman Sheikh Mohammed bin Faleh Al Thani and discussed some ways that the
Preakness could be meaningful to Qatari sponsorship or partnership. They planned
to have more discussions during the racing festival.
A variety of English racing personalities and officials were on hand in a
clear acknowledgment of growing Qatari strength in ownership and ongoing
acquisitions of racing and breeding stock. In addition to the trainers,
Tattersalls Marketing Manager Jason Singh, the Queen’s Racing Manager John
Warren and Harry Herbert, who last year assumed the role as Sheikh Joaan bin
Hamad Al Thani’s racing advisor, were among those present.
“We are all here to very much look this way for the future. There obviously
are a lot of plans here and things are happening in other (Persian) Gulf states
as well,” said Gosden, who noted that the Middle East and Asia represent
racing’s best opportunities to grow in the near future.
Qatari officials are planning to build a new international racetrack, and
Sheikh Joaan has made it clear he intends to be a world power in racing. Peslier
was among those taking home trophies for winning races on the program after
steering Umm Qarn’s four-year-old purebred Arabian filly Haifaa to victory in
the Gulf Cup over 1600 meters on grass.
In the featured Thoroughbred race, the Qatar 2022 Invitation Cup for
three-year-olds and up sprinting 1200 meters on grass, Sandbetweenourtoes won
his third consecutive race and third in February. The five-year-old
Footstepsinthesand gelding, bred in Ireland and winner of nine of 28 starts
after beginning his career in England, proved best by 2 1/2 lengths over
Bazaruto, a son of Pivotal. Force Freeze, runner-up in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup
Sprint, threatened as the field of 16 drove into the stretch, but could not
sustain his momentum and wound up seventh. Force Freeze was making his second
start off a near two-year layoff after finishing sixth in a listed race at Sam
Houston January 25.
In the other featured race on the program, the Al Rayyan Cup for Qatari-bred
Thoroughbreds, Al Jeryan Stud’s Aseer defeated Sraab in a stretch duel, winning
the 1850-meter event on turf by 1 1/4 lengths, to the jubilation of his team.
Rising Qatari trainer Mahanad Al Yaqout leaped and shouted in joy before leading
in the four-year-old Singspiel colt, who was ridden by Tadhg O’Shea.
“Today Aseer proved he is the best horse born in Qatar,” Al Yaqout told the
crowd of race goers in his televised interview.
From the racetrack, the guests and dignitaries — including International
Federation of Horseracing Authorities Chairman Louis Romanet, who presented some
of the trophies — made their way to the Ritz Carlton, where Peslier once again
found himself in the spotlight. The highlight of the night occurred when famed
French-based horseman Mario Luraschi, who performed with eight other riders in
the festival’s opening ceremony, shocked and delighted the crowd by riding his
big gray horse Quijote among the tables and eventually up on to the stage with
another rider. At that time, Peslier was called up from his seat at dinner. Once
boosted up on Quijote, Peslier rode through a series of the horse’s trademark
rears and leaps, including jumping off the stage, drawing applause and laughter.
Festival racing was set to resume with the second program on Wednesday, with
the featured Thoroughbred race the Qatar International Cup over 1600 meters on
grass. The event is a domestic Group 2 contest and has drawn 17 entries.