By Mikhil Bhat/Paris


Midway through the last season, Jassim al-Ghazali (pic) was feeling the heat.
He had won 140-odd races the season before and he was inching closer to that mark again. With a lot of reputation and success at stake, there were questions he faced every time he met someone: ‘Can you do it?’ or ‘How will you do it?’
“You won’t believe the kind of pressure I was under,” al-Ghazali tells Gulf Times. “I reached 70 wins, 90 wins, and the questions kept coming at me. Reaching 140 wins was not easy, so imagine what it was like when people were talking about crossing that.”
And then on April 8, this year, with 138 wins in the kitty, al-Ghazali created yet another record. He won all the eight races on the card and in process also smashed the 140-win mark. He eventually finished the season with 176 wins.
He looks up with a smile, “I have done it now.”
And then there is a sudden realization, “Now I have to look at ways to better that.”
So how do you better that?
“This season is not going to be easy. The Club has changed the programme. You don’t know how things are going to pan out over the season. There is a new track for the sand, so there is that unpredictability too,” he says, on the sidelines of the Arqana Purebred Arabians auction at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in Paris on Thursday where he bought two horses.
“I hope to get to that level and maybe even better that. But it is not easy to stay at that level. Anyone who knows anything about horse racing, knows it is not an easy job. Every season, I put in a lot of hard work and the last three four season have been very good. I am hoping God will help me this season too.”
In his quest for training greatness, al-Ghazali has travelled with the Al Shaqab Racing team and his brilliant horse Dubday to Europe.
Dubday won the Betfred Glorious Stakes, as part of the Goodwood Festival in July this year and third at Preis Von Europa in Cologne last month.
He says this was a great experience for him to learn from as a trainer. “Outside Qatar, the horse racing and the training scene is very different. I would like to thank HE Sheikh Joaan who gave me a chance this year to go out and see for myself the levels of racing and training. I went with the Al Shaqab team and Dubday. I stayed in Europe for five months,” the champion trainer says.
“Dubday did well at the Goodwood Festival. He had places in some other races. Dubday is a special horse. Probably the best one in Qatar. During this period I ran horses in England, France, Germany. It is not easy… but for me good. I got to learn a lot.”
He added: “Any trainer will be in a very good position if they go out and see the training scene there. I hope a lot of teams in Qatar send a few trainers outside to gain experience. It will only help in raising the level. But at the same time we also need to make sure that only good horses go outside.
“When you go outside, you are not working for your name, but for Qatar’s name. Whether it is an owner or a trainer, they should keep in mind Qatar’s name because when you are outside, they refer to you as the Qatari guy.”
It’s the Arc weekend and Al Shaqab Racing’s Treve is on everyone’s mind.
“The Treve is primed for a hat-trick. She has been doing well in training. And also, if you meet her trainer, she seems to be very happy every time you meet her. I am a trainer and I know how we think. A trainer can sense it. Treve had a special run last time she ran. If she runs like last time, nobody can beat her,” al-Ghazali says.
Treve’s Sunday bid at Longchamp has also rubbed on to al-Ghazali. “Dubday will go back home. Just like Treve will try for a hat-trick at Arc, I want for Dubday to make a hat-trick in the Emir’s Sword. I am hoping to give HE Sheikh Joaan a great result with that.”