DUBAI // The racehorse trainer Rashid Bouresly has targeted a full-time jockey for his Metro Stables this season. The Kuwaiti, who recently opened a second yard in Sharjah, has so far been engaging the services of jockeys looking to pick up spare rides but has nevertheless managed to rack up three winners since the season started on November 6.
"It is the most important thing for us," said Bouresly, who has his sights set on the German-based rider Pascal Vandekeere. "I have been lucky to use excellent jockeys like Wayne Smith, Royston Ffrench and Daragh O'Donohoe, but these jockeys are attached to other yards and can't ride for me full-time. "I am planning to bring Pascal over to be a full-time Metro Stables rider." Vandekeere rode four runners for Bouresly at Friday's Jebel Ali meeting and, though he has now headed back to Germany where he is contracted to ride, Bouresly is hopeful an agreement can be reached which will see the 47-year-old come to the Emirates for the remainder of the season.
The point, said Bouresly, is to have a jockey who can ride out in the mornings and get to know his horses and their individual styles. "The jockeys I have had are experts and they can ride any horse, but I am looking for someone who knows my horses and can ride for me at track work too," he said. And a resident jockey would no doubt help Bouresly achieve his ambition to take a string to England next summer.
"I have five to seven horses who I am hoping will shine in the Carnival, and I would like to take them to England," he said. "I want to train there myself in the summer. I have had runners in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Singapore in the past, but not Europe." One who is likely to make the trip is Bouresly's sprinter Star Crowned. Bought in a private deal for just £2,000 (Dh12,125), from the English yard of Brian Meehan, the son of Kingmambo earned the Bouresly Racing Syndicate nearly £40,000 in his first two winning outings for the stable in 2008.
Since then he has shone, claiming third in the 2008 Dubai Golden Shaheen, netting £100,502, and following up with a respectable fifth worth £3,482 in the Singapore Krisflyer Sprint. "He had a metal pin in his foot and had breathing problems when I brought him, that's why he was cheap," said Bouresly, who is in the UK at the moment on a horse-buying trip. "But if you have the time and patience sometimes you can bring these horses on.
"I liked him because he had excellent conformation and an honest look. He has been a very good horse for me who always tries his best." Watch out for Grand Hombre, second in the Carnival last season, who Bouresly reckons will perform even better this time. "We also have a two-year-old AP Indy filly called Surprise Result from the US who seems promising and another Kingmambo horse, Brave Mambo, who has only had a few runs so far but who I think has a good future in the UAE," said the handler.
Bouresly, whose horses run in the distinctive orange colours of the family-owned Bouresly Racing Syndicate, celebrated his most recent of three wins at Jebel Ali with unbeaten filly, Summer Games. The four-year-old claimed a maiden at Sharjah before taking the nine furlong Damas Handicap. His other win came from tough contender, Rawalbandie, who has earned his keep, running five times since November 6. He found his form three weeks ago, winning the five-furlong Bin Belaila Contracting at Jebel Ali under jockey Smith.
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