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On the 25th of March, we will celebrate the running of the Dubai World Cup, a horse race that hosts some of the best horses in the world running in a country with a great heritage tradition in this sport. Many people love to attend and follow this race, but many also want to know more, simple things that would make their day at the races more exciting and informed. Often there are questions that may seem too basic to ask, and the books and accounts on horse racing are too specific and purist based to explain to a newcomer what this incredible sport is all about. In a countdown of articles that will run the week up to the Dubai World Cup I hope that my words will help share the sport with a greater audience.
People who buy racehorses are investing in a dream.
The goal is tantalizingly simple. Each and every Thoroughbred owner hopes that their horse will have the talent to string together a series of big race wins.
The prize money will represent an excellent return on their investment, and the thrill of watching their horse chalk up successive wins is the added bonus.
The owners of horses that will line up in the headline races at the Dubai World Cup meeting will already, to varying degrees, have fulfilled this dream for their owners.
But, like in any sport, for every headline-grabbing performer on the track, there are hundreds of horses who never make it to racing's top tier. They are, in many respects, the backbone of the racing industry, filling the majority of race fields around the world.
It is not just about the big-ticket races such as the Dubai World Cup. In the UAE and at our showpiece venue at Meydan, there are races to suit every level of horse, from first-time runners to those at the top of the sport.
But the dream for racehorse owners is to find that special horse, with a mix of athleticism, determination and durability that can make it to the top.
This is not a fanciful dream. The history of racing is full of accounts of horses who have risen from humble beginnings to score major track victories.
So, how does a racehorse owner seek out such a horse? The process is much the same everywhere. Most will rely on the expertise of the person who will train their horse or an agent to find one that suits their requirements.
Considerable store is put on a horse's pedigree. In Thoroughbreds, breeding lines can be traced back 300 years to the birth of the breed and the three founding desert stallions - The Darley Arabian, The Byerley Turk, and The Godolphin Arabian - who contributed so much to its foundation stock.
The earlier pedigrees of these stallions, from the late 1600s to early 1700s, are lost in time, but all registered racehorses today trace their lineage to one - or sometimes all - of the three.
Naturally, buyers of bloodstock focus on the recent generations, looking to the success of closely related progeny and the quality of the horse's parents. As one man once said, “Breed to the best and hope for the best”.
Results suggest that the best way to breed a winner is from a very good race mare. In a catalogue at sales the catalogue will have the names of big race winners in a bold font. So you will often hear Racing people say, the mare has a lot of black type, which means she has many winners in her background.
That aside, there are many breeding theories, some which follow the crossing of certain lines together, others using a mare line, while others may choose to select on the performance of close relations.
However, part of the magic of racing is that breeding is not everything. A top athlete can just be a freak of nature.
Good breeding improves the chances of success, but the best bred horse in the world could still prove to be an average track performer - or not even make it to the racetrack.
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