UK 16 February 2024
The Arabian Racing Organisation (ARO) is delighted to welcome the registrations of two horses from leading UAE owner breeder Al Asayl Bloodstock. Both three-year-olds have arrived at Hugo Palmer’s Manor House Stables in Cheshire and are being prepared to run in the UK this season. Marakeb, a colt by leading first and second crop sire Al Mourtajez, is out of a five-time winner for the Late Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, founder of Al Asayl, whilst Rich Pulls Pitch is a filly by their two-time Group 1PA winner RB Burn.
Multiple Classic winning trainer Palmer, for whom this is his first experience of training Arabians, said, “We’ve just taken over two horses for Al Asayl which is the Abu Dhabi based racing team of Sheikha Alyazia bint Sultan Al Nahyan and her father Sheikh Sultan. I think I’m their only trainer to train Flat thoroughbreds, jumping thoroughbreds and Arabians!
“When Sheikha Alyazia asked me, I said I’d love to, but you must realise I’ve never had anything to do with Arabians and she said they’re just like thoroughbreds, treat them like thoroughbreds. So, on her instructions, that’s very much what we’re doing.”
The horses arrived as two-year-olds in early December having been broken and pre-trained in France and Palmer sought the advice of five-time leading Arabian trainer James Owen, who had trained for ARO’s late Patron, HH Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
He continues, “I rang James, who’s now making a very good fist of being a National Hunt trainer and he very much said treat them as though they’re a year behind. They’re very much like small thoroughbreds really and though they were quite backward when they arrived, in the last couple of weeks Marakeb, the colt, is just beginning to switch on and improve.
“I think there’s got to be potential for the sport to grow [in the UK]. If the money is there and if the races are there, then I’m sure the horses will follow. We would like to have more than two here. My heart will be in my mouth the first time they run, because it’s very hard to know what’s going on until we get them on the track. That’s going to be really fun and I’m looking forward to it.”
