Dubai: Just three days after seeing Manark win the $1m (Dh3.67 million) Dubai Kahayla Classic on Dubai World Cup night, trainer Erwan Charpy arrived at Jinma Lake Racecourse in Chengdu, China, on Tuesday to prepare for Friday’s Chengdu Dubai International Cup.
Six UAE-based trainers will saddle runners at the event, which is in its second year.
Charpy, who trains at Dubai Racing Club’s Green Stables, and Bhupat Seemar, assistant trainer to Satish Seemar of Zabeel Stables, spoke to more than 50 assembled broadcast and print media members at the track.
2015 UAE Champion Trainer Musabah Al Muhairi, Red Stables trainer Doug Watson, Millennium Stables’ handler Esmail Mohammad and Ali Rashid Al Raihe of Grandstand Stables are the UAE trainers with runners.
Horses from Charpy’s yard are in a rich vein of form after the Frenchman’s Purebred Arabian Versac PY claimed the Group 1 final round of the Al Maktoum Challenge series on Super Saturday on March 7, before Manark romped to a facile victory in the Purebred Arabian showpiece on Dubai World Cup day.
Charpy is looking for a second China winner, having saddled Citizen’s Charter to victory in the 2014 Guangsha Handicap over 1,400 metres.
The jockeys and trainers contesting the race day, including Al Muhairi and UAE Champion Jockey Richard Mullen, will attend a media lunch on Wednesday at the Chengdu Intercontinental Hotel.
Among the jockeys in action will be 2014 Dubai World Cup winner Silvestre de Sousa from Brazil, UAE rider Ahmad Ajtebi, Ireland’s Pat Dobbs, Tadhg O’Shea and Wayne Smith, Adrie de Vries from the Netherlands, Argentine Jesus Rosales, Englishmen Royston Ffrench and Sam Hitchott, and Xavier Ziani from France.
The race meeting is organised by the Meydan Group under the Emirates Racing Authority rules of racing and in partnership with the Chengdu Municipal Government, the Chengdu Sports Bureau, the Wenjiang District Government and China Guangsha Group.
Five races worth a combined total of 3.75m Chinese Yuan ($604,536) will be contested on Friday, including the featured 2,218-metre Chengdu International Cup presented by Longines. Also on the card is the Wenjiang Meydan Classic over 1,600 metres, The Meydan Handicap over 2,418 metres, the Guangsha Mile and the 1,400-metre Wenjiang Sprint. The first race goes to post at 1.30pm (9.30am UAE).
