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Dhruba pins his hopes on Bluff for new season

The new horse racing season takes off the stalls on Friday with one of the horse racing pioneers in the UAE, the Jebel Ali Stables, celebrating their silver jubilee anniversary.
The season's first 6-card race will be held at the Jebel Ali Racecourse's right-handed horseshoe shaped track, which will host 11 of the 62 meetings scheduled this season in the UAE. The Jebel Ali Racecourse surface is a blend of sand and oil and it is known for its steep European style finish.
"There are no big plans as such to celebrate our 25th year, but to celebrate the milestone, we will host the Dhs 250,000 Jebel Ali Silver Jubilee stakes on the last day (March 17) of our season," Dhruba Selvaratnam, a veteran horse trainer in the UAE, told Khaleej Times on Monday.
This season, Selvaratnam has put his money on Shaikh Ahmed's four-year-colt - Bluff. "He (Bluff) is running for the second season and he is my favourite," he said with a grin.
"I am not aiming too high," the genial trainer said when asked about his expectations this season. "Our horses are not that high quality yet, hopefully we can win some of the races in Abu Dhabi and Jebel Ali," the veteran trainer who currently has 35 horses training under him, candidly confessed.
Selvaratnam has been with the Jebel Ali Stables since 1990 and has had quite a successful run in the UAE, including wins on Dubai World Cup nights. The veteran Sri Lanka-born trainer has won the Nad al Sheba sprint (later renamed the Dubai Golden Shaheen) a record three times for Shaikh Ahmed's Satank (1993), Mudallel (1998) and Ramp And Rave (1999).
On the Jebel Ali Stables' chances of a runner on the World Cup night on March 25, 2017, he said: "It is hard to say if our horses will feature on the World Cup night? We will know during the course of the season, may be in the next couple of months," he said and then optimistically added that may be one of the races during the World Cup Night.
He reckons that horse racing has put the UAE, and in particular Dubai, on the world map. "We started from scratch and now we are recognised world wide (for horse racing)," he enthused.
Horse race meeting for 2016-17 season
Racecourse         Meetings
Meydan                20
Abu Dhabi            15
Jebel Ali               11
Al Ain                  10
Sharjah                6
Total                  62
 
sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com