2010 Trainee Views

January, Dubai, 2012

Sitting in the back of a taxi being driven down the glass high-rise avenue that is the main boulevard of Sheikh Zayed road in Dubai, it didn’t matter that I hadn’t slept at all on the eight hour flight to get here. My eyes couldn’t help being captivated by the surreal world around me. It is like arriving in a world where nothing is impossible for man to create. It is a city scattered with landmarks of the tallest, largest, newest and first. The icon which steals attention, towering over all the others, is the Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building (by some distance). Backing that up we have the world’s tallest hotel, the ‘7 star’ Burj al Arab, the world’s largest shopping mall, the man-made islands of ‘The Palms’ and ‘The World’, the Middle-East’s first indoor ski school, and for those of us in racing – the state of the art racetrack of racetracks: Meydan. You would think that merely building a city in the middle of the desert would be impressive enough. Not in Dubai. Here, it is always moving forward.

We learn that 80% of the people in the United Arab Emirates are expats, and my taxi driver was no different. A native of India who had been here for 8 years he could well take up a job as a tour guide if his taxi career ever falls through. My arrival was given all the more panache by the sight of the sun rising as we drove under the shadows of the skyline. Dawn’s first appearance was like the tip of a cigarette lit at the top of the Burj Khalifa, 830 metres above me, then descending as a burning fire slowly down the east side of its shimmering glass column. By the time the reflection reached the bottom and the sun revealed itself I was showered and ready to finally get some sleep. But not before I admired the view of the Burj al Arab and the awesomeness that is Wild Wadi Water Park 100 metres outside my apartment window and thought, “This is gonna be a cool three months.”

The first item on the ‘agenda’ upon our arrival was for us to locate a place for the New Year’s celebrations. As it turned out this was an ultimate fail seeing that none of us knew anything or anywhere to go around Dubai and so we spent more of our time getting stuck in taxis and attempting to find tickets to parties that weren’t sold out, than actually celebrating anything. Come midnight we were scattered all around the city as our taxis had become separated and we’d yet to buy Dubai sim-cards to communicate with each other. But thankfully, all the chaos before didn’t matter in the end, for we got to experience an incredible set of fireworks all around the city as the clock struck twelve – some from the foot of the Burj al Arab, and others outside the Atlantis – an incredible hotel located on the highest ‘frond’ of the man-made Palm Island.

Week one in each country we go to is generally about orientation and meeting people who will effectively be our mentors, lectures and contacts during our time here. Our orientation included a city tour where we visited the gold and textile ‘souks’ (markets), a mosque, and a number of magnificent hotels. The highlight of this tour wasthe view from the sky-deck restaurant at the top of the Burj al Arab. There are not many views that can compete with that one.

We will all be spending mornings on work placements over the next few weeks, and so in this first week we conducted a number of stable visits and met with the likes of Dhruba Selvaratnam, Doug Watson, Erwan Charpy, Mike de Kock, John Hyde, Satish Seemar and Feargal Cooper who runs the International Stables. In addition to trainers, we were also introduced to Frank Gabriel – the CEO of the Dubai Racing Club, commentator Terry Spargo, and chief steward of the Emirates Racing Association, Gerard Bush. We will be shadowing the stewards on Meydan race nights and Gerard will be our overall supervisor at the track.

The schedule for us in Dubai consists of our placements in the mornings and lectures in the afternoons. We will complete modules in Finance, Human Resources, Information Communication Technology and Marketing at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management. We will also receive talks from guest lecturers such as from Laura King from the Dubai Racing Channel and Emily Oman from Falcon & Associates. Placements started this week with James joining the Dubai Racing Channel, Barry with Falcon & Associates, Brianne and Adrian with the International stables, Nick with farrier Rob Stevenson, and the rest of us spread between the trainers mentioned earlier. It is early days on placement so more information will be given in our next trainee views installment on what get up to, but James has already had fun making a feature for the Dubai Racing Channel which would make Rishi Persad proud. Michael Hardy may tell you that Musir and Master of Hounds’ domination of the first round of the Al Maktoum Challenge was a direct result of his skill rather than that of Mike de Kock, Kevin Shea and Christophe Soumillon but perhaps that is something for you to decide!

James Trotter and Kelsey Riley

Click here for a list of all 2010 trainee views

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