All right, here\'s the report on the trip, though I\'m not close to completely recovered yet.
Dubai is a western city, specifically, Miami with a lot more money. All the signs are in both English and Arabic, there is construction going on all over the place, 90% of the people are in western dress, everyone speaks English, you hit your first Starbucks within 5 minutes of the airport (not counting the one in the airport). All the workers are from Asia, mostly Pakistan and India, and they don\'t make out as well, but better than at home. (One woman working at the hotel had a 4yo child back home in the Phillipines, she gets to see her 2 weeks a year).
The hotel where they put us up is owned by Sheik Mohammed, and is only 5 stars, not to be confused with the 7 star job half a mile away. Still, it was quite a place, with waterways and gondolas to take you around.
They held the draw the day after we got there, and things got serious pretty fast. It took place in a theater seating a few hundred, about 50 of which were world wide media, with highly produced short films by all the sponsors of the various races, and race footage of every horse in the World Cup. Lots of soeeches, then a complicated draw involving backgammon sets for each horse with a number inside corresponding to a post position. After about 5 minutes you get that this is not Dutow and Levine over the Inner at Aqueduct.
The next day they had a breakfast at the track, so we went (late), passing the nearby camel track-- FYI, they now use remote controlled robots to ride them, since people complained that too many 6yo kids were getting dropped at high speed. I was told the camel track is 10 miles around-- the races are LONG.
After breakfast at the track we stopped by the Godolphin Gallery on the way out. Now, I have to preface this part by saying I had just been thinking what a great job Sheik Mohammed had done to create this huge event out of nowhere, out of his pocket (I still think this), and how glad I was to be there, and part of it-- I was actually a little choked up looking at the track, thinking how far we were from Greenwich Village.
Then we got to the gallery. With it\'s shrine for each Godolphin GI winner, and editorial copy next to each one that said things like \"Europe was no match for the onslaught of such a great Owner\" (that\'s right, capital O). Of course, my reaction was, I would really like to beat this guy\'s ass... but alas...
They took us all (meaning about 1,000 of us, including all the corporate types) about an hour out into the desert that night, for food, fireworks, belly dancers, tumblers, and overall one heck of a party. Everything first class, all the way.
Friday was the golf outing, I hit the ball well, ready for Spring, and Cerin can hit the ball a mile. We only played 9, fortunately lost the scorecard.
By then owner Parra was in town, and we tried to get into the underwater restaurant Michael D. mentioned here, but couldn\'t. I though the place we ended up in was fair, others liked it more.
Raceday-- there\'s less to tell here than you might think. The track is huge, you guys probably saw all the racews better than I did, even with binoculars. It\'s wierd not having a tote board. The owners area is a luxury box and it\'s great, once you find it-- organization and communication in general is not the strong point of this event.
They did an unbelievable show between races, don\'t know if they showed it on TV, with dancers suspended from balloons, among other things. Wild.
The best part was getting to go to the paddock for the race, with the trophies there. Right up to the point where Super frolic, who had been doing great all week, acted up and washed out in 30 seconds flat. Don\'t know whether that caused the bad effort or was an effect (of a problem somewhere), but Vlado went from thinking we were going to win to giving up all hope in the blink of an eye.
Godolphin winds, Dettori is annoying, the people rejoice.
Now, as some of you know, my girlfriend (Chris) is a writer, and she specializes in the Middle East. By coincidence she is writing a book about Oman, which is only a 40 minute flight away, so when Ro was nice enough to give us the trip, she insisted we go there. We went Sunday morning, and spent the next two days touring. It\'s very interesting, and very different than Dubai-- not as rich, an actual Arab country, but according to 3 different people the friendliest and most open minded of the Arab states, one that Arabs come to to \"let their hair down\" (that\'s a quote). They do have some nice hotels, I would go back there.
By the way-- it\'s no surprise that the Port deal went south, with Bush/Cheney saying \"War On Terror\" and changing color codes every 30 seconds and scaring the crap out of everybody for 5 years. But I\'ll tell you what, we shouldn\'t just have let them buy those ports, we should hire them to handle ALL the ports.
1-- Dubai is all about business. And something blowing up would be very bad for business. They are highly motivated.
2-- The tightest security I have ever encountered, BY FAR, was at the Dubai airport coming home. The screened the bags 3 different times, the metal detector is set to flash at very low readings-- low enough that they pulled Chris into another room and a woman checked the wire in her bra. They take that stuff a lot more seriously than we do.
Jerry,
Thanks for the Dubai description. You might consider doing a little free-lancing for the Travel Channel. Sorry about Super Frolic - just wasn\'t his day.
The network coverage didn\'t show much of the festivities but the OTB channel did. The chariots of fire (literally) were spectacular. One OTB TV highlight was when they miked Jerry Bailey and Dettori as they rode the whole course together and pointed out all key points - they were really smoking. Baileys memories of what it was like to be on Cigar at various points of call was priceless.
As for Dettori, there are days when I\'ve appluded him and days I\'ve cursed him - sometimes in the same race. LOL. I may be a little biased since he is my paisano, but nobody rides that Nadar al Sheba course better than him. I don\'t consider jockeys as important as many but I always look seriously at any horse he rides on that course.
Bob
JB
Real nice post, I have 2 questions out of curiousity. Can you get a bet in on track anywhere and was there any drinking at the track or that party you went to?
Thanks
Rich
1-- Legally, no. I heard they had blocked some websites, too, but I got down.
2-- There\'s alcohol all over the place.
Jerry - Glad your back , the TV coverage of the dancing was pretty good and was clear watching that the security at the track was tighest I\'ve ever seen anywhere. Did you get to meet and see some of Godophin Folks or Horses , What do you think about Henny Hughes in the Derby .
Thanks for the trip notes, Jerry. A quick nitpicky question:
Not that it mattered much but... whose idea was it to duel neck and neck with MAGNA GRADUATE early? Flashing speed from your outside post was fine, but my perception from watching the broadcast was that your jock insisted on shadowing JR too closely. Once he established good early position, he should\'ve relaxed your horse and stalked Pletcher a bit more. Easier said than done, of course.
Welcome Back, JB:
What is the main track at Nad Al Sheba like? Sand? Composite? Like a western main track?
Read with dismay that both Woodbine and Keeneland will be racing on Polytrack before the end of the year. I understand Woodbine has weather issues but can\'t understand Keeneland with its 2 abbreviated meetings needing to go synthetic.
Whats next? Astroturf like artificial surfaces for grass racing?
I hope SF bounces back ok. On the bright side Annika Lass ran well and is now Graded Stakes placed. Hope she came out of the race in good order.
Be careful what you \"wish\" for. Field turf used in many football stadiums is made from rubber and crushed up tire bits like Polytrack. Less injuries and easier to maintain than regular grass......I say its only a matter of time.
Don\'t know what the track was made of, but SF loved training over it, and Vlado and his wife liked it so much they brought home a sample.
I remember reading some time back that they modeled the track composition after Chuchill Downs.
Oh yeah--
So on Monday we were driving around Oman, on the highway, when we saw a sign saying \"Race track\". We pulled off and started looking for it, became clear that they had done a hell of a job of hiding it. Finally we found an old, deep, sandy training track, no grandstand. Going down to the far end we found a small bunch of stalls-- not really a barn-- and 6-8 thoroughbreds, including a new foal and her mom. So I found myself patting the neck of a racehorse (\"he has won two races\") in the middle of nowhere. Someone later promised to take me to the Royal Stables and the actual track in another part of the country if I came back to Oman.
Finally got to watch the ABC telecast last night, saw they covered most of what I did in my post, right down to the camel robots. Wasn\'t paying much attention until right after the World Cup, when they went to a close up shot of the stands. If anybody still has the tape, the blond with the tan hat is Chris, the shoulder next to her is mine, the 2yo who\'s trying to figure out what all the noise is about is Simone. Don\'t know why Chris is smiling, I\'ll guarantee I wasn\'t.
You know why that track was empty? They voted down slots in Oman.
it took two weeks for the punch line..but still very amusing..entertaining!