Racing Festivities Kick Off in Qatar

Story and photos by Michele MacDonald 
    A bevy of international guests, including Maryland Jockey Club representatives Tom Chuckas and Karin De Francis, English-based trainers John Gosden and Richard Hannon Jr. and French jockey Olivier Peslier, celebrated with the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club in Doha on Feb. 25 as the three-day International Racing Festival began with rousing sport and a glittering black-tie gala dinner. 
   From near dawn until almost midnight, the guests were entertained with a visit to the famous Al Shahania Stud, a full program of racing and then lavish dining and entertainment at a ballroom in the Ritz Carlton Doha. 
    Many took the opportunity to explore business possibilities with the Qataris, with De Francis and Chuckas promoting the GI Preakness S. program while interviewed on in-house television during the races. De Francis said she hopes there can be some synergies between Qatari entities–which already back major racing and sporting events in Europe, including the British Champion Series and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe Weekend–and the Preakness. 
    “We're very honored and privileged to be here,” said De Francis, a consultant with the Maryland Jockey Club. Chuckas, president of the organization, added that the experience has definitely been “on our bucket list.” 
    During the racing program, De Francis and Chuckas were introduced to QREC Chairman Sheikh Mohammed bin Faleh Al Thani and discussed some ways that the Preakness could be meaningful to Qatari sponsorship or partnership. They planned to have more discussions during the racing festival. 
    A variety of English racing personalities and officials were on hand in a clear acknowledgment of growing Qatari strength in ownership and ongoing acquisitions of racing and breeding stock. In addition to the trainers, Tattersalls Marketing Manager Jason Singh, the Queen's Racing Manager John Warren and Harry Herbert, who last year assumed the role as Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani's racing advisor, were among those present. 
    “We are all here to very much look this way for the future. There obviously are a lot of plans here and things are happening in other [Persian] Gulf states as well,” said Gosden, who noted that the Middle East and Asia represent racing's best opportunities to grow in the near future. 
    Qatari officials are planning to build a new international racetrack, and Sheikh Joaan has made it clear he intends to be a world power in racing. 
    Peslier was among those taking home trophies for winning races on the program after steering Umm Qarn's 4-year-old Purebred Arabian filly Haifaa to victory in the QR500,000 [approximately US$137,315] Gulf Cup over 1600 meters on grass. 
    In the featured Thoroughbred race, the QR1 million [$274,627] Qatar 2022 Invitation Cup for 3-year-olds and up sprinting 1200 meters on grass, Sandbetweenourtoes won his third consecutive race and third in February. The 5-year-old Footstepsinthesand (GB) gelding, bred in Ireland and winner of nine of 28 starts after beginning his career in England, proved best by 2 1/2 lengths over Bazaruto (GB), a son of Pivotal (GB). 
    Force Freeze (Forest Camp), runner-up in the 2011 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, threatened as the field of 16 drove into the stretch, but could not sustain his momentum and wound up seventh. Force Freeze was making his second start off a near two-year layoff after finishing sixth in a listed race at Sam Houston Jan. 25. 
    In the other featured race on the program, the QR 500,000 Al Rayyan Cup for Qatari-bred Thoroughbreds, Al Jeryan Stud's Aseer defeated Sraab in a stretch duel, winning the 1850-meter event on turf by 1 1/4 lengths, to the jubilation of his team. Rising Qatari trainer Mahanad Al Yaqout leaped and shouted in joy before leading in the 4-year-old Singspiel (Ire) colt, who was ridden by Tadhg O'Shea. 
    “Today Aseer proved he is the best horse born in Qatar,” Al Yaqout told the crowd of racegoers in his televised interview. 
    From the racetrack, the guests and dignitaries–including International Federation of Horseracing Authorities Chairman Louis Romanet, who presented some of the trophies–made their way to the Ritz Carlton, where Peslier once again found himself in the spotlight. 
    The highlight of the night occurred when famed French-based horseman Mario Luraschi, who performed with eight other riders in the festival's opening ceremony, shocked and delighted the crowd by riding his big gray horse Quijote among the tables and eventually up on to the stage with another rider. At that time, Peslier was called up from his seat at dinner. 
    Once boosted up on Quijote, Peslier rode through a series of the horse's trademark rears and leaps, including jumping off the stage, drawing applause and laughter. 
    Festival racing was set to resume with the second program on February 26, with the featured Thoroughbred race the Qatar International Cup over 1600 meters on grass. The event is a domestic Group 2 contest and has drawn 17 entries.