French Trainer Identifies Horses to Watch This Season
Long time UAE trainer, Erwan Charpy, has been putting the finishing touches to his early season campaigners over the last two weeks with gallops on Meydan’s Tapeta and the dirt at Jebel Ali.
The Green Stables-based trainer, who has been conditioning horses in the desert for eighteen seasons, is to open his 2012/13 account with three runners who all worked at the famous uphill track ahead of their seasonal debut.
“They worked very well when we went to Jebel Ali,” said Charpy. “I was very pleased with them. I took a few of the older horses over there last week including Aqmaar, Crackdown, Furnace and El Muqbil. I wanted to set them up well for the first meeting at Jebel Ali on Friday.”
Charpy is set to saddle Crackdown and Citizen’s Charter in the first race of the season, a 1,600m handicap and Furnace in the concluding race of the day over 1,400m.
The Frenchman oversees the training of 50 horses at his yard situated next to Meydan Racecourse. “I am planning to run Furnace at the first Meydan meeting rather than Jebel Ali, but I took him over there to get him fit on the hill,” he said.
Charpy plans to saddle Dinner Jacket and Redemptor at Meydan’s opening meeting on Thursday, November 8.
“There is a conditions race that I am looking at for Redemptor and Dinner Jacket will go for a maiden,” said the handler.
Meanwhile Charpy has a few runners that he is looking forward to bringing out as the season progresses, chief among them is Prepared.
“He is a nice horse and I’m interested to see what he can do,” said Charpy. “He ran fourth at Meydan last season (behind Mickdaam in the 1,900m Listed Al Bastakiya). We are just getting him going again and I am targeting a mile race at Meydan in November for him.”
Another to look out for is Sheikh Hamdan’s Yaseer. He would have stuck in the memories of UAE racing fans last season after getting touched off into second in the 2,200m Group 3 Abu Dhabi Championship by Al Shemali, just denying retiring jockey, Richard Hills, a winning signoff from his long career in the saddle.
“It was the closest of photo finishes,” said Charpy. “He’s a lovely horse and I’m really looking forward to him. He’s a horse who is very delicate and we are just going to let him come on at his own pace, but he is working well. If he’s ready we will start him early [in the season] and if not we will wait.”
Charpy also singled out Markazzi, second to Rutland Boy in the Gulf News Handicap over a mile last March, as one to keep an eye on as well as Thistle Bloodstock’s Across the Rhine.
“Across the Rhine will probably have a race at Meydan and then we will hopefully put him away for the Dubai World Cup Carnival,” said the trainer.
ENDS
Erwan Charpy Profile
Nationality: French
Stables: Green Stables
Years training: Charpy has trained horses for 20 years, with 18 of them spent in Dubai.
Highlights: Charpy was the UAE champion trainer in 2000/2001 and has enjoyed big-race success including the 1998 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 with Nabhaan and the HH President’s Cup in 2005 with T-Bird. He holds an enviable record in Jebel Ali Racecourse’s biggest contests with wins in the Listed Jebel Ali Stakes which he claimed in 2006 with Singing Poet, 2008 with Rampallion and 2010 with Mashaahed. Charpy also trains Purebred Arabians to great success including three Al Maktoum Challenges, the most recent coming in 2011 with Santhal and the 2012 Group 1 Emirates Championships-winning Versac PY.
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