Dubai: Important to 'read' horses, say trainers as they talk about world of racing

From injuries to moods, there are several things that dictate the performance of a horse on race day. Horse trainer Alice Haynes said she had to make the “bold move” of pulling a horse out of a race because she felt it was the right thing to do.

“You have little hunches,” she said. “You have these little niggly things in our head that we'll know is the right thing to do. For one of my horses, I had to pull him out on the day of a race. The horses shouldn't be running just because it is a big day, or it is an important race. We also have to make sure that the owners understand that the horses are not feeling a 100 per cent and running that day would impact their health.”

She said as a woman, she feels like she has an advantage. “I think we read scenarios better, and I think sometimes we can read horses better,” she said. “We have that sort of one-on-one touch. I think to be able to care for horses is a much bigger thing than having big wins.”

Hailing from the UK, Alice is one of the trainers who is in the emirate for the season leading up to the Dubai World Cup and is looking forward to having a few good races.

His day starts at 2:30 am

For ace trainer Bhupat Seemar, his alarm rings at 2:30am every day. “I'm in the stables by 3.30,” he said. “The grooms first check all the horses. Then the feed man looks at them and then the foreman and the head lad. If they all feel that there is something that I need to look at, then I step in. I'll probably have about 15 or 20 horses to look at every day. Then we decide if we're going to alternate their training programme or what they are going to do that day.”

Seemar, who trained Laurel River that won the Dubai World Cup earlier this year, said it was important to read the horses. “Horses are constantly talking to you,” he said. “But it's for us to read them. It's a language that they speak to you. This is what the difference is between a good trainer and other trainers.”

He said that during his time training Laurel River, he instantly knew that he was different. “I always knew he was a good horse but he had small physical issues like any athlete can have,” he said. “But I didn't think that he's going to win till I started training him in the last three weeks of the World Cup. Then I was quite sure that it's going to be a very special horse that can come and beat him because I've never seen anything like him.”

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