BUFFERING - THE DUBAI DIARY - PART 3

By Robert Heathcote | Saturday, March 19, 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 3.

Hello again ...as the countdown to Buffering’s World Cup Sprint race enters the final week.

His blood results came back yesterday and they are good. The vet is very happy with him. It’s good, but not as good as when he left Australia but the trip/travel will have affected him to some degree.

The stress of the trip has his splits at 66/28 which is wider than the ideal 60/35 it was when he left ... but yeah, not far off the mark and we have a week to go.

What pleases me the most is how bright in the eye he is ... and alert ... and his work this morning was just super!

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We chose to work Buffering very early on Saturday morning as our slot was 5 to 5.30 am ... and what an amazing experience that was in its own right!

We were allowed the use of the turf track and Buffering was the only horse on the track.

The walk from the International Quarantine stable is about 3.5 kilometers, which works well as his warm up exercise, and then he enters the turf track at the 2000m point and trots right around the back and all the way to the top of the straight.

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His work consisted of easy three-quarter work from the 800 and he was strong on the bit. Melanie let him stride out the last 400 in about 24/25 and he went over the line strong on the bit and full of enthusiasm.

I can’t say exactly what Melanie said when she pulled up but suffice to say she said it was the most amazing experience to gallop up the Meydan straight with full lights blazing past the 1.6 kilometer grand stand/hotel complex.

To be on his own at the most incredible track complex in the world was really quite surreal.

Just as importantly though, Mel loved his work and said his enthusiasm was awesome!

We are fortunate enough to be staying in the hotel with our room overlooking the track. I can imagine it will be something so very special on race night itself!

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Buffering’s recovery after his track gallop was super.

The walk ‘home’ to the quarantine stables is excellent as a cool down and recovery period.

Beautiful safe manicured pathways make this a horse heaven and Buffs own stable is akin to a 5 star hotel itself.

He enjoys his hose down, a few rewarding carrots and then he gets to chill out and relax.

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The visionary Ruler of Dubai is well known to all racing enthusiasts around the world but I find it simply impossible to describe in words what has taken place here the past 30 years.

In fact, this year’s World Cup meeting is the 20th anniversary of the inaugural World Cup meeting.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum realised the oil would run out one day and other sources of revenue would be needed for the Emirate to prosper.

Dubai is strategically located between Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. With sunshine and space in abundance and enormous revenues from their oil, promoting commerce, trade, luxury and tourism were natural.

The key was to put a golden lining on the desert and this is where horse racing came into the picture. Dubai used horse racing as a way to build its brand!

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Horse racing has been an important part of the Arabian Culture since the days of the Prophet Mohammed in the 7th century but it’s been the modern version which has flourished ever since Sheikh Mohammed won such races as the Breeder’s Cup turf with Pebbles back in 1985 and with the super filly Oh So Sharp winning the British Triple Crown.

In the 1990s, after having won most of the world’s feature races ... the Melbourne Cup still eludes him though after having a good crack at it and coming very close, Sheikh Mohammed decided the time had come for Dubai to part of the top level of horse racing.

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The inaugural World Cup meeting was won in 1996 by the immortal Cigar and the purse was of $4 million.

Cigar was the best dirt horse in the world and the reigning US horse of the year so it added enormous prestige to the World Cup.

In 2000 The Dubai World Cup race purse was raised to $6 million US dollars and that was a race which was meant to be with the Sheikhs Dubai Millennium winning and his trainer Saeed Bin Suroor saying he was the most perfect racehorse he has ever seen.

In fact, the Dubai ruler has now won the World Cup an amazing 8 times with his most recent win with African Story 2 years ago.

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Today, the World Cup meeting for the nine races distributes an unbelievable $30 million US dollars with the Cup winner taking home a cool $6 million bucks!

Buffering’s Sprint race is the Al Quoz sprint and it has a total purse of $1 million dollars.

It would be nice to take home a good piece of it.

Cheers for now.

Robert

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