Herbert Relishing Saudi Adventure

For those staging the richest race in the sport's history, in Saudi Arabia Feb. 29, a dramatic cut this week to the purse for the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational S. has promised immediate dividends. Gary West, owner of Maximum Security (New Year's Day), described the slashing of the Gulfstream fund as “an absolute game-changer”, asking why he should run the most accomplished colt of his crop for $3 million when he can contest a $20 million prize a month later.

Admittedly, West would no longer have to pony up $500,000 for a gate in the Pegasus, but the Riyadh package was already all-expenses-paid. And while it is also true that the Saudis carefully positioned their meeting as a potential staging post between the Pegasus and the Dubai World Cup, three races divided between Florida and the Middle East would plainly consume more of a horse's reserves than two in the same neighborhood and climate.

Harry Herbert, Global Ambassador for the Saudi Cup, is too diplomatic to identify this abrupt shift in the landscape as a fairly stunning boon. Welcoming TDN to his office in England–on a dark, damp winter afternoon in the Berkshire countryside, a world apart from the Arabian sands–he instead stresses that the idea had always been to co-operate as much as to compete.

“When we were over for the Breeders' Cup, we met up with Belinda Stronach and Prince Bandar had a really good conversation with her,” Herbert says. “The Saudi Cup's position obviously allows you to go Pegasus, month; Saudi Cup, month; and on to the Dubai World Cup. So if you've got the right horse, and the horse can stay sound, then the earning potential is simply gigantic.”

The synergy with Dubai, moreover, is not confined to the practicalities of proceeding from one side of the desert to another. For the whole Dubai experience, pioneering as it was, has helpfully cleared a path for the Saudi Cup and its lavish, diverse undercard. Originally a radical challenge to western preconceptions, Dubai has matured into a fixed and credible highlight of the international calendar, rendering familiar and unfrightening the idea of flying top-class horses to what had seemed an alien environment.

“There's no question about that,” Herbert agrees. “And there's fantastic co-operation between Dubai and Saudi Arabia on this whole project. If you're going to go from America to Saudi, and then Saudi to Dubai, you have no issues moving around between the two and back home.”

Nonetheless, he could understand if there was a degree of skepticism about the candidly ambitious schedule for completion of the turf track, in particular–still to be laid at the time of the meeting's European launch in September.

“That work was only initiated a few months ago, and people were concerned,” Herbert admits. “It was [Godolphin trainer] Charlie Appleby who came up to me at the launch and said, 'Harry, I'm the converted. I see it happen every year!' And of course now there is the most beautiful turf track. I was out there recently and it was incredible: what I saw in July, and this lush grass I'm looking at now. The STRI Group do Wimbledon, and football stadiums, and so on: this is their expertise, and it's stunning to see it all come to fruition.”

But while the turf track demanded something of a leap of faith, the existing dirt circuit–modeled on Belmont–has been enthusiastically endorsed by Frankie Dettori as a match, in texture and configuration, for any in the world.

“It's a stunning racetrack,” Herbert says. “The infield is beautiful anyway, and now suddenly you add the green of the turf and the whole thing is lifted even further. So it's all very exciting. It was an immensely ambitious project, given the timescale, but it is incredibly impressive how the right people–led by Tom Ryan [Director of Strategy & International Racing]–are absolutely bringing the whole thing together.”

Herbert himself was first invited aboard just before Royal Ascot, when approached by Paul Roberts of Turnberry Consulting–whose previous assignments had included redevelopment of the royal racecourse itself. Having only recently ended a four-year stint working for Al Shaqab, Herbert initially asked himself whether he wanted to resume regular travel to the region.

“But when we sat down on the first day of Ascot–Prince Bandar, Prince Abdulaziz and Prince Abdullah–I was so impressed with their enthusiasm,” he recalls. “There was no question in my mind that this was going to be well done.”

There is, of course, significant political energy behind a project intended to dovetail with the Saudi “Vision 2030”. Some in the west have cautioned against sport, seduced by lavish funding, allowing itself to endorse values antithetic to its own culture. But Herbert argues that these events actually serve the very opposite purpose. He urges horse racing professionals to embrace an opportunity to share in opening up the kingdom, and helping the most progressive elements of its hierarchy to dismantle cultural barriers. Indeed, he feels that racing should be proud to have been identified as an appropriate vehicle for bringing nations together, in a world full of division.

“Sometimes people can be incredibly cynical, not gripping that whole scenario,” Herbert remarks. “Of course there are divisions, we all have them–in our own country, and other places. But when something like this is taking place, I think it has to be right. Racing is a fantastic diplomatic sport for crossing divides, whether social divides or divides between countries and how countries present themselves.

“I mean, I'd never been to Saudi Arabia myself. I've had two or three trips now and couldn't have found everyone more welcoming. The intent here is really genuine, and that is to open up–to create this incredible raceday, where all worlds can come together. As with Dubai, in the old days, it's about coming to see another country, another culture.”

As an example of the way assumptions can be challenged, Herbert extols the international jockeys' challenge scheduled for the eve of the meeting. Some westerners will doubtless be amazed to discover that the four races will be contested by seven male jockeys–and seven females.

Even within the narrow perspectives of horse racing, there are preconceptions to unravel. Few outside Saudi Arabia have much sense of the sport as it is already established there, with a population of around 6,000 Thoroughbreds–whether of the ambitions nursed for the local breeding program, or the leadership being shown in prohibition of medications.

“There's been horse racing in Saudi Arabia for 50 years,” Herbert stresses. “But now there's that willingness for it to become a showcase for the people of Saudi Arabia. Getting the right protocols in place, the right stewarding, every single detail to carry off a major international meeting like this–it's all fantastic for the sport there, highlighting how well it can be done. Because this is just the start, as Prince Bandar has always said. This is not a one-day wonder.”

So much for the big picture. The logistics and planning, in contrast, are all about the closest attention to detail. Some things simply can't be accounted for, in advance. The organizers must do all they can to ensure fields are adequately subscribed, for instance–but then need a plan for sieving them down, if oversubscribed. To that extent, it is very convenient to have the spill-over option of the Dubai Carnival.

“Well, it's a free entry Jan. 7, and there will be just under $30 million in prize money on the day,” Herbert says. “So if you have a horse that is sound, well and in some sort of training, then you'd have to be pretty bonkers not to consider these races. You have to enter. It doesn't cost you anything. But what we're picking up–through the I.R.B., and through Bradley Weisbord who's helping us in the States–is incredibly positive. Right now we'd have well over 150 horses giving it serious consideration, across the different races. And it could be much bigger than that. The market's been full of chat about horses changing hands, people trying to buy horses.”

The meeting's premise might be borrowed from the baseball film Field Of Dreams. “Build it, and they will come.”

“Definitely–and there are ambitious plans for the future,” enthuses Herbert. “Prince Bandar is thinking well ahead, with all sorts of initiatives that could be tied into the race meeting; things you could do around it, in business and so on, to get people there. Young people in racing, for example, is something he's very keen to encourage.”

The Prince's personal engagement has conspicuously animated the team, albeit he would evidently demur if described as the driving force for the enterprise.

“If he was standing here now, he would say, 'Absolutely not,'” Herbert says. “Because he's fantastically modest. It's the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, and it has support from the very top. But yes, he's the chairman of the board, if you like. And incredibly active, and completely on every detail. For everyone working on the project, having someone like him around really fires you up.”

On the face of it, you might think that the hosts would have been prudent to give themselves an extra year to inaugurate the meeting.

“But there's no doubt in my mind that you would be getting exactly the same issues and panics,” Herbert says. “I think by compressing the timeframe, you can't waste a moment. Seeing Tom out there, you think, 'Oh my Lord, this man is working 18-hour days.' But he's got incredible energy and drive, and is a real people person. He's making it happen. When you call him now, you hear the excitement in his voice. You know things are moving along.

“Of course, there's lots still to do between now and the end of February. But the pieces of the jigsaw are all in place: the right people to carry this off, and make it a really spectacular event.

“We know that people will always chase the big money. And when everything's paid for, with no cost to the owner, it's pretty compelling to say: 'Have a horse, will travel.' Everywhere we've been, everyone we've spoken with, there's great appetite from folks to go on this adventure.”