Victor Espinoza rides California Chrome to victory in the Dubai World Cup on the dirt track at Meydan Racecourse on March 26, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Warren Little / Getty Images
Victor Espinoza rides California Chrome to victory in the Dubai World Cup on the dirt track at Meydan Racecourse on March 26, 2016 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Warren Little / Getty Images

Sport

‘It is a good surface’: Dubai Racing Club and Bob Baffert reassure horsemen over Dubai World Cup dirt

Several high-profile horses have suffered injuries during the season on the dirt at Meydan, which will stage the $10 million feature race on Dubai World Cup night.

Geoffrey Riddle

March 22, 2017

DUBAI // The Dubai Racing Club have moved to reassure international horsemen that the dirt surface will be the best it can be for the Dubai World Cup at Meydan Racecourse on Saturday.

The US$10 million (Dh37m) contest is not the only race to be staged on the dirt, with the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the UAE Derby, the Godolphin Mile and the Kahayla Classic for Purebred Arabians all taking place on the surface.

There is a small chance of rain on Friday, but forecasts suggest there is a 50 per cent chance that rain will fall on the big day.

"We maintain the dirt surface as we have always maintained it," Frank Gabriel, the executive director of the Dubai Racing Club," told The National.

“It is a dirt surface, so we harrow it, we level it and we make it the best condition we can in the environment it is in.”

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Primary concerns from horsemen during the Carnival have been that the surface is loose on top, which generates a significant amount of kickback, and then firm underneath.

Several high-profile horses have suffered injuries during the season on the dirt, too. Satish Seemar’s popular eight-year-old Surfer fractured a pelvis behind Godolphin Mile favourite North America in February, while more recently the sprinter Mushir broke a pastern in training and had to be put down.

The turf has not fared much better. Graystorm, the Turkish raider, suffered a spiral fracture to his left foreleg in the Al Fahidi Fort in February, while Mike de Kock’s Ertijaal fractured a sesamoid during the Group 1 Jebel Hatta on Super Saturday.

The dirt surface has been praised by several international trainers over the past few days, however, with Bob Baffert and Alain de Royer-Dupre, whose horses Zarak and Vazirabad have trained on it for several weeks, particularly complimentary.

Baffert said on Monday: “It is a good surface. It is soft and they get over it well.”

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”