Maria Ritchie will have her first runners at Jebel Ali on Friday as a full trainer after the Emirates Racing Authority and Dubai Racing Club granted her a licence on Sunday.
Ritchie has worked as the assistant to Musabah Al Muhairifor six years and at Oasis Stables for 13 years in all, but following his 12-month ban for cobalt use on racehorses last week, Ritchie was required to step in to the breach.
Ritchie has contacted her new owners to sound out whether they wished to keep the 78 horses lodged at Oasis under her care, and as an illustration of the backing she enjoys only Ali Saeed Bilhab’s West Coast Flyer has left the premises.
"It is surreal, really," the 49-year-old New Zealander told The National.
"I am very honoured to have been appointed. It is unfortunate, however, how it has all happened but we all have to move on here. All the staff have been thrown in to the deep end but we have all pulled together."
Art Wave and Shaishee will both run in the 1,400-metre handicap at Jebel Ali on Friday, while there may also be a handful of runners at Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
In between, Ritchie will also have the gilt-edged chance to register a quick-fire Group 1 win, too, as she will take the wraps off Special Fighter in Al Maktoum Challenge Round Three on Super Saturday at Meydan Racecourse.
Joining last season’s Dubai World Cup fourth on the $US1.8 million (Dh6.6m), seven-race card with the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid duo of Muarrab, who will take his chance in the Mahaab Al Shimaal, and Fityaan, who will line up in the Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint over 1,200 metres. All three horses provided Al Mheiri with an astonishing Super Saturday treble 12 months ago.
Special Fighter has not run since finishing behind California Chrome in the World Cup in March, and it is towards the $10m event next month that Ritchie is building.
"He is ready to run in the third round of the Al Maktoum Challenge," she added.
"He was ready earlier in the season but had a dirty nose and we had to back off him.
"I would like to think he will run a good race. He is not 100 per cent, but I would say he is trackwork fit and it might be a big ask for him."
Werther, Hong Kong’s Horse of the Year, stamped his passport to the World Cup meeting on March 25 when he was an electric winner of the Hong Kong Gold Cup at Sha Tin on Sunday morning.
Jockey Hugh Bowman endured a difficult passage around the home turn on the favourite but Werther picked up his third consecutive victory over the 2000 metres at Hong Kong’s premier track by finishing the final 400 metres in 22.10 seconds. Group 1 winner Blazing Speed was a short head behind in second, while Secret Weapon, who could also come to Dubai, was three quarters of a length further back.
It was only Werther’s second race back from injury and prior to the Group 1 contest trainer John Moore suggested the New Zealand-bred gelding by Tavistock was slightly undercooked.
Moore, who is also set to bring back Not Listenin’tome in an effort to improve on that sprinters’ eighth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen last season, confirmed he has received his invitations to Dubai.
Bowman is certainly looking forward to the chance of securing Hong Kong’s first success in World Cup night’s $6million turf event over 1800 metres.
"I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s in the top 10 horses in the world on turf," the Australian jockey said. "To beat a genuine Group 1 field in the manner that he did, and to suggest he can only improve with it, fitness-wise, if he goes to Dubai he’d have to have a legitimate chance, regardless of the field."
Over in Japan, Neorealism and Mirco Demuro won the Grade 2 Nakayama Kinen at Nakayam Racecourse by three quarters of a length from Sakura Empereur with Logotype half a length back.
Neorealism holds entries in the Dubai World Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic, while Real Steel, last season’s Dubai Turf winner, could finish only eighth.

Source: The National