BUFFERING: ROBERT HEATHCOTE'S DUBAI DIARY - PART 1

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, March 17, 2016

Trainer Robert Heathcote’s on the spot reporting of Buffering’s previous international trip to Hong Kong gave the gelding’s supporters rare insight into the ‘behind the scenes’ activities involved in such an undertaking. Now, once again, as Buffering joins the world’s best in Dubai for the Dubai World Cup meeting, Heathcote will, workload permitting, provide HRO readers with exclusive details in a series of blogs entitled ‘Buffering - the Dubai Diary.’ This is Part 1.

Buffering is now safely in Dubai after the rather long trip to get him here.

It’s been quite a journey and I think the key to any success is how well he travels and just as importantly, how quickly he recovers to be a one hundred percent again.

Buff left Brisbane on Thursday afternoon the 10th March for the twelve hour float trip to Warwick Farm in Sydney. This trip was the first of the three legs to get him to Dubai.

He floated well on the direct road trip arriving in Sydney early Friday morning.

He was not due to fly out of Sydney until Monday evening so that gave him a good few days to recover from the road trip. Melanie said he arrived bright and alert and immediately got stuck into his feed and hydrated well.

He did some light exercise work under saddle on Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning with Melanie reporting he felt great.

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The flight out of Sydney airport to Dubai was via Hong Kong and the first leg was a nine hour flight departing our time at 8.45 pm.

Buffering was loaded onto his ‘pallet’ which is basically a double horse stall ... so he had room to move, but it was still quite confined.

Thankfully Buffering is well experienced at travelling. Many horses need sedation when they fly but this fella has never needed it in all of his travels.

Yes, I was nervous as I actually watched the Emirates 777 cargo plane taxi out onto the Sydney runway and take off via the Airport Radar system available via the internet.

I tracked the flight all the way to Hong Kong when it landed some nine hour later.

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Melanie travelled with Buffering and a professional flight groom provided by the Equine Transportation company.

The plane’s cargo was unloaded in Hong Kong but Buffering had to remain on board in his ‘crate’. Quite a sight to see a completely empty plane with just Buffering’s crate down at the back.

Whilst on the ground in Honkers, he had a good feed and he drank about 15 litres of water which is essential when travelling.

The plane filled up with cargo again and two and a half hours later off it went for the eight and a half hour flight to Dubai.

Buffering was the only horse on the flight but having Melanie with him was a huge plus as no one knows him as well as she does.

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Upon arrival in Dubai, the formalities were all pretty well streamlined.

The actual float crate is transferred onto a custom flatbed vehicle and driven to the Meydan International Quarantine facility which was only about thirty minutes from the airport.

The facility at Meydan is state of the art, as one would expect, and Buffering is in a 5 star stable complex.

The Quarantine manager had been in contact with me a month prior to our arrival and John Nicholas had arranged for a local gelding to also be stabled with us so Buffering has a companion for the stay.

Each countries horses racing at the World Cup meet have their own individual stable facilities for Quarantine reasons and the horses are allotted a specific time when they are permitted to use the training facilities.

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The Emirates Racing Authority vet was on hand for his arrival to give Buffering a thorough examination and it was thumbs up how well he travelled.

OK, he was tired after the long journey, as expected, but he sure was happy to hit the sand roll and loosen up those legs after the confinement and twenty four hours of travelling.

He lost a little weight on the trip, about 10 kilos, but that’s mainly fluids which he will replace quite quickly.

We had already arranged for his feed to be waiting for him at the stables but it was a bit of a mad rush to arrange the export permits from Australia to take his ‘Mitavite’ feed with him which was not available in the UAE.

The last thing I needed was a change of diet so close to the big race night but with some great help from the Sydney Mitavite team and the IRT staff, the feed travelled with Buffering.

So we here we are. The first step has been successfully completed.

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