MDK calls Dubai South Africa`s Royal Ascot

Not sure where i read it ,or heard it but Mike De Kock referred to the Dubai Carnival as SA Royal Ascot,now thats great and we all get excited about it but......

Why can`t SA have it`s own Royal Ascot for the racegoers? Why play golf and entertain business men for 3 days surrounding the Emerald cup,why not have 3 or 4 days great racing instead for the public?

Why not have an International Jockeys day ,then a ladies day and then the July 3 days on the bounce every July,there is always 3 or 4 meetings (race days)surrounding big races in the UK and around the world ,Epsom Derby,Ayr Gold Cup,Lincoln,York Dante etc etc just a thought, and i know the July is not broken so doesn`t need fixing and all that but still!!

We do it much better.
We put all the big races on one day.
There are seven (seven!) graded races on Saturday.
Talk about overload.

Sort of like the World Cup meeting? It has 7 group races, plus the PA one.

Yes and after that in Dubai? nine months of nothing. Sort of like Phumelela?

Heh, yes, point made.

Hibs

I agree with you, it is sad that MDK has to liken Dubai to SA's Royal Ascot- lol, hoepfully he meant the UK's Royal Ascot. Both are great meetings and deserve their place amongst the greatest in the world.

We should have a racing carnival - leading up to our big meetings (my thoughts). Get the vibe going, bring more people into the city, create more reasons to go racing.

Imagine a Friday/Saturday of racing at Greyville - what an absolute pleasure. Or an interprovincial Jockeys champ. for 1 week around the country (like a roadshow- promoting the best in our industry) International Jocks challenge, in Jhb, Kzn and Wcp - Thursday friday saturday - and then off to the bush they can go.

Men v Women, Jocks v Appies create a buzzzzzzzzzzzzz that has people talking positively about our great industry! So many of industry leaders would be Role Models/Icons in other fields, but why not ours????

Racing is more than just win win win, it is about achievement, about working together for a common goal, about being PROUD to be in this game. I thank myself everyday that I can be involved in this game and will always try and make a positive contribution.

Here is to making Greyville the Royal Ascot of SA racing (biased from a Kzn point of view) -D

MDK has reaped the rewards in Dubai the last few years,would it be a different story if the Europeans started sending their better horses to dubai instead of the cannon fodder they send at the moment?

Would be wawsome if we had a 'TRUE' World Champs!!!!

Julian Muscat - Times Online LONDON: Having laid the groundwork over three successive summers, Mike De Kock is not returning to Abingdon stables in Newmarket, which he bought from Geoff Wragg last year.

South Africa's champion trainer does not have sufficient horses to make the trip worthwhile.

The news is disappointing for his many fans in Britain, not to mention shareholders in British Airways. De Kock must have been the most regular commuter between Britain and his homeland, where he trains a string of 150. Yet it is not altogether surprising, since De Kock sent out only 41 runners for nine winners over the past two seasons in Britain.

His horses invariably needed a break after their exertions at the Dubai carnival, where he is perennially the leading overseas trainer and the only one capable of mixing it with Godolphin's battalions.

And this year his two carnival stars, Musir and Raihana, are off to Australia, leaving Golden Sword as the only suitable candidate for Newmarket.

De Kock may be absent but his innovative training methods are now prevalent in yards around Newmarket. His penchant for galloping horses against the clock on treadmills - strictly taboo at HQ until recently - has been increasingly adopted over a bitter winter when the ground was often frozen.

For De Kock, the process of "acclimatising" to British racing was pronounced. He was astonished to learn of the undulating tracks, long journeys to the races, the curse of successive summers when rain barely seemed to stop falling, and in particular, poor prize money levels for all but the biggest races.

However, what astonished him most was that owners who bleated nonstop about bad purses were reluctant to race for huge purses in Dubai.