Grand plans set in motion as inaugural Meydan breeze-up arrives

The gleaming horses are doing better for some sustained sunshine than some of those responsible for them, judged by a few pasty faces peeking out from beneath baseball caps and straw boaters.

The United Arab Emirates in late March is a very different scene to the wintry British and Irish gallops where the 69 members of the catalogue for the inaugural Dubai Breeze-Up Sale began their preparations.

Last week, they were all packed onto a chartered flight and have been undergoing their final touches at Meydan’s quarantine training track, where they completed the official breeze on Wednesday morning.

The event is the brainchild of Gold Cup-winning trainer Tom Taaffe, now the Goffs international client relations consultant, who says it has been "about 18-20 months in the making".

"We feel there’s an opening in the Middle East," he says. "Dubai is trying to reinvigorate a little bit again and it is an idea that Sheikh Rashid, who came into office as the chairman of the Dubai Racing Club, wants to bring greater interest to this part of the world and attract global attention. We’re delighted to be part of it."

Virtually all of the major Irish consignors have brought horses with more than half of them being American-bred types that should appeal to local owners for the dirt.

Yet it is a most eclectic list including Kingmans, Kodiacs, a Frankel, a Dubawi filly from a smart international family offered by Malcolm Bastard and even Mocklershill’s son of Japanese ace Daiwa Major out of the magnificent racemare Peeping Fawn.

"The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries are aligning to form a new race programme and they’ll work in hand and together and complement each other with their racing," Taaffe continues.

Credit: Dubai Racing Club

"So when that’s happening they’re going to need more horses as well and this is part of that. It’s a large area and the thinking behind it was that we had three tiers of horses, lower middle and upper. We’re catering for three different price ranges, and that’s what I believe we have."

Investment has been made to the training tapeta and turf track which, with its benches and tree-lined edges, would make a perfectly serviceable little racecourse were it not for the plate glass monolith of the main Meydan grandstand lying adjacent.

A few hundred were present to watch the breeze and while some were clearly attending out of curiosity or networking necessity, branded team leisurewear betrayed big owners from around the Gulf who were casting their eyes over the breezers. As contradictory as it sounds, it is not inconceivable that the odd horse could also be back on a plane heading even further afield.

"There’s huge excitement," Taaffe says. "We had busy inspections, a lot of people have come into town, and there’s a lot of Dubai interest. It’s not just Dubai though, we’ve had interest from Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa, the GCC, the Americans are coming a bit as well. A lot of people can get to Dubai far easier than other places and there’s a big focus on driving racing up again here."

The most pronounced difference in this sale is that horses were not chasing the clock and, instead of being driven aggressively, most were just pushed out over two furlongs. Taaffe explains that this was in order to service the needs of the market.

"We’re not looking for a horse that’s going to be a Royal Ascot two-year-old as such, we want one that can be a sound horse in three or four years’ time racing," he says. "We know that things can happen but that’s the ethos - longevity and sustainability.

"Any staying here will have three to four months to acclimatise, then pre-train, and the programme is based as three-year-olds not two-year-olds, hence we looked for a good, strong scopey sort of horse. They’ve been x-rayed, doubly vetted and scoped you’re trying to ring-fence a lot, you’re giving the purchaser greater confidence.

"The vendors have embraced it very well, they’ve brought their best here and I’d say we’ve by and large got the best horses that are going to be at a European breeze-up sale this year; that seems to be the opinions of them, Let’s see what happens."

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