Course News - February 2008

As the Dubai racing carnival gathers momentum, so too do the Flying Start trainees lives in their new home in the Middle East. Some of them are based with trainers including Mike de Kock and Doug Watson, others are with racing administration bodies like the Emirates Racing Association or International Stables.

Andrew Birch has joined the stable of South African trainer, Herman Brown, and Eden Harrington is with International Stables where all of the visiting horses, trainers and staff are based. Mornings start around 5am for most trainees, and classes in the afternoon are from 2 to 4pm at the Emirates Academy. At this stage, they are studying the building blocks of business management, which are Finance, HR, Marketing and IT. On their return to Ireland, they will start working on their final and largest project on Flying Start – the business plan. Trainees go racing to Nad Al Sheba every Thursday, where they shadow the stewards for the first three races and are free to assist their trainers for the remaining races if required. Friday is a day off to rest and catch up on course work as it is the Sabbath in Dubai. So far, they have had unusually cold and wet weather this winter which has interrupted some training routines at the stables. Hopefully, it will improve shortly giving the expected glorious sunshine and light ocean breeze that normally prevails from October to March.

The first-years are on the other side of the world, braving the elements in Lexington, Kentucky and loving every minute. They have started on their practical working routines of foaling, stallion shed, mares, pre-training and yearlings. The two trainees on foaling do two weeks of nights assisting with foaling, those on pre-training are with Johnny Burke at Keeneland and the others are split between Jonabell, Gainsborough and Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. Lectures in Equine Nutrition at University of Kentucky take place every Tuesday, foal evaluations every Wednesday and industry lectures or visits every other afternoon. It’s a packed schedule on the course and there is an active social life to keep up with as well!

Right now we are accepting applications for the course starting in August 2008. The deadline is February 22nd and anyone mailing or couriering from outside Europe should give their applications a minimum of 5 working days to arrive on time. I’m looking forward to seeing some new faces from the southern hemisphere at interview for Flying Start this year.

 

Clodagh Kavanagh