BROWNIE'S BLOG - ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR DUBAI

By Damian Browne | Friday, March 11, 2016

Damian Browne, reigning Queensland's Jockey Of The Year, is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia and, as such, his highly informed views make essential reading for anyone in the racing industry. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’ appears exclusively on HRO

The countdown to Dubai is well and truly on!

Buffering was given a two-part gallop schedule as his final preparation at home before departing for Dubai where he will tackle the Al Quoz Sprint over 1000m at the Dubai World Cup meeting.

The first of those gallops came in-between races at Doomben last Saturday.

I was happy enough with that gallop. Buffering didn’t have the blinkers on for that gallop and he is usually is ‘just fair’ without the blinkers on. Being a 1000m race he doesn’t need to be wound right up at this stage because obviously he still got a long flight ahead, which is as good as a run. There is still time to tighten him up.

The blinkers went on Buffering in the gallop at Eagle Farm on Tuesday. It was a more serious bit of work.

I expected him to be a lot sharper as the blinkers always switch him on ... and he was. He felt really good. He was able to stretch out over the last few furlongs and do a nice bit of work.

Buff is right where we want him at this stage. Obviously the race is still two weeks away and he has a long trip ahead of him but we couldn’t be happier with the way he worked and pulled up in his last couple of workouts before leaving for Dubai.

The excitement is building. Anytime you are with this horse he creates excitement and a good buzz and vibe.

He races a bit more sparingly now than he used to so there is time for that excitement to build up for each race.

It’s an enjoyable time and one that you’ve got to make the most of because it won’t last forever.

It will be hard to find another horse like him.

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Obviously going to the Dubai track, which I have never ridden on, means I have to do my homework.

I talk to people like Craig Williams who has been successful there before. I record and study races from Dubai. That is the thing about technology these days, you can get a bird’s eye view and analysis of just about everything that takes place ... and you can get that sitting in your own lounge.

Having said that, I will get to Dubai in plenty of time to, importantly, be able to make my own first-hand assessment of the track.

I’m staying at the hotel on the track so I’ll be able to walk the track a couple of times beforehand.

I mean Buffering is not the most difficult horse to ride. He is pretty straight-forward, but I will do what homework is necessary and take it from there.

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Buff was the first horse to gallop on the new Eagle Farm track (on Tuesday), so it was also a bit of a test for the track itself. From a horse and rider’s point of view it performed very well.

The track received a fair bit of rain before the gallop on Tuesday and it didn’t seem to have much effect so obviously the drainage is working really well straight away.

It had that nice cushion. It was like running on a mattress and Buff was really able to stretch out on it. I couldn’t feel any abnormalities about it.

I could feel the camber ... just coming off the corner when Buffering started to quicken a bit you could feel him change stride and really want to get into gear.

I’m sure they are going to run off there very quickly on race-day which should make for some great racing.

We won’t get ahead of ourselves though.

There is still two months to go and the track is not a finished product yet. It is still very much a work in progress and Buff’s gallop will have given the track supervisors valuable feedback as to where it stands at the moment ... but I can say, as a first impression, it certainly gave me a great feel.

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