Some of the prominent jockeys participating in this year's Dubai World Cup race meeting.
Frankie Dettori is the face of horse racing. One of the most charismatic riders in the business, Dettori is retained as first jockey to the Dubai-owned Godolphin stable. With the exception of the English Derby, he has won almost every major race in Europe. On September 28, 1996, he made racing history by riding all seven winners on a day at Royal Ascot. It was a day he outdid himself in riding what we now know as the ?Magnificent Seven'.
Encouraged by his father who was an Italian champion jockey, Dettori left school and began his rise to fame as a stable boy. A jockey apprenticeship with the Italian trainer Luca Cumani followed and in 1986, aged just 16, he rode his first winner in Turin.
Lizzy was his first UK winner in 1987, and within two years he had clinched the title of Champion Apprentice. In 1990 Dettori rode 100 winners in a season and, in the process, became the first teenager to do so since Lester Piggott.
In June 2000, Dettori's career was almost tragically cut short when he was involved in a plane crash at Newmarket. It took him several months to make a full recovery and return to the racing arena but he's back and riding at his best.
Michael Kinane
Born on June 22, 1959, Michael Kinane is one of the most successful jockeys in the world with more than 70 Group 1 winners to his name, including over 20 Classic winners throughout Europe. His first winner, Musicari at Leopardstown, came when he was only 15.
Being named Irish Champion Apprentice in 1978 and Irish Champion Jockey an incredible 11 times have confirmed Kinane as one of the best in his trade. Among his big race victories are King Of Kings in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, the English and Irish Derby double on Galileo and the Oaks by Imagine in the Oaks, and Milan in the St Ledger.
Kinane rides for the John Oxx Stable and freelances for many of the top UK trainers. Widely acknowledged as the man for the big occasions, he is the only jockey to have won Australia's Melbourne Cup, the Belmont Stakes in America, the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He also won the Breeders Cup with High Chaparral.
Ted Durcan
Ted Durcan is a five-time champion jockey in the UAE. Born on February 25, 1973, Durcan first came to the UAE as the second jockey at Paddy Rudkin's Blue Stables during the 1997-1998 season. He continued as No.2 jockey the following season and struck up a good partnership with horses owned by the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum.
Following that success Shaikh Rashid offered Durcan the job as retained rider of horses in his ownership. Durcan grabbed the opportunity and won the 1999-2000 UAE Jockey's Championship. The season was arguably one of his best as he scored wins in the Godolphin Mile with Conflict and Rhythm Band in the Dubai Duty Free on Dubai World Cup night.
Durcan successfully defended his UAE Championship in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 seasons. He also won the championship twice more in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005.
Richard Hills
Richard Hills is the retained rider to Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance and Industry. Born on January 22, 1963, he is the son of trainer Barry Hills. His twin brother Michael Hills is also a successful jockey while his elder brother John Hills is a noted trainer.
Hills had his first win at Doncaster in 1979 on Border Dawn. He won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Maroof in 1994 and in 1995 won his first British Classic when he partnered Harayir to victory in the 1,000 Guineas.
Following the retirement of Willie Carson, in 1997, Hills was appointed as first jockey to Shaikh Hamdan. In 1999, Hills had a winning start to his season when he won the Dubai Duty Free on Altibr and completed a spectacular double aboard Almutawakel in the Group I Dubai World Cup.
Hills has ridden in the UAE for the past 13 seasons and has won virtually all the major thoroughbred races in the country. His victories on Dubai World Cup night include Dubai World Cup ( Almutawakel in 1999), Dubai Duty Free (Altibr in 1999), UAE Derby (China Visit in 2000) the Dubai Sheema Classic ( Nayef in 2002) and the Dubai Kahayla Classic ( Bopp Moon in 2003).
EQUINE FRIENDS
Meet the experts
Some of the renowned horse trainers at this year's race meeting.
Saeed Bin Surour
Saeed Bin Surour has had a dream rise to the top of horse racing's best-known personalities. Chief trainer at Godolphin, he prepares horses targeting the world's biggest races.
A former policeman, Surour has trained many of the world's highly bred, talented flat racehorses, of which he identifies Dubai Millennium as the best. During his career, Dubai Millennium won nine of just 10 races, accumulating several million pounds in prize money.
Surour joined Godolphin in April 1995 and has not looked back since. In the very first year he finished second in the British trainers championship, finishing closely behind John Dunlop. Championship and English Classic success followed in 1995, clinching the Oaks with Moonshell, St Leger with Classic Cliché, and with the legendary Lammtarra annihilating the field in the Derby.
Surour played a significant role in the rapid development of the Godolphin into one of the most powerful stables in the world. Godolphin has won more than 100 Group 1 races.
Mike de Kock
Mike de Kock is one of the most successful overseas trainers in Dubai. He made headlines and catapulted himself into the ranks of the greats by winning two $2 million races on Dubai World Cup day in 2003, a year he saddled seven winners from 18 runners, including Ipi Tombe who won three races in the UAE including the Group 1 $2 million Dubai Duty Free on Dubai World Cup night. He also won the Group 2 $2 million UAE Derby on World Cup night with Victory Moon. De Kock finished second to Godolphin on the overall Dubai trainers' log with Dh723,000 and about $2.6 million in stakes. He has since set up an international satellite stable in Dubai.
He won his first South African Trainers' Championship Title in the 1998-99 season, training 106 winners. In 1995 De Kock became the trainer of choice for the leading Oppenheimer family, an association that has produced tremendous success, culminating in legendary performances of their star colt - Horse Chestnut - regarded by racing experts as the best horse ever to have raced in South Africa. Horse Chestnut raced in South Africa between 1997 and 1999 and in the US in January 2000.
In South Africa, he has won almost every major race at least once, including the Vodacom July with Ipi Tombe (2002) and Greys Inn (2004), the J&B Met with Horse Chestnut (1999) and Badger's Coast (2000), and the R2 million Summer Cup a record six times, most recently with Wolf Whistle (2003).
Doug Watson
Doug Watson looks set to win his first trainer's championship in the UAE, just two years after he assumed charge at the Red Stables in Al Quoz.
Watson was a two-time runner-up to Mazin Al Kurdi but this season has been in command right from the outset. He has saddled more than 40 winners and is comfortably placed to win the title.
Born in 1965, Watson began his career as head man at Satish Seemar's Zabeel Stables before becoming assistant to two-time champion trainer in the UAE Kiaran Mclaughlin.
Among his notable wins are the third round of the Maktoum Challenge for Arabians with Djelmane and the Jebel Ali Mile with Burnt Ember.
