Other Sports December 2007

Durcan saddles up for Silk Road ride

Gun hoop set for Happy Valley showdown with world’s best jockeys

By ‘Trackwork’ our turf editor

Ted Durcan, the self-effacing young man who came to the Gulf because he didn’t think he would make a living a jockey in the UK, may soon be the toast of Hong Kong and the racing world.

The six-time UAE champion hoop has been selected to ride in the world’s premier jockeys’ challenge in Hong Kong on December 5.
It will be the first time a UAE champion has been represented at the prestigious Cathay Pacific International Jockeys’ Championship (CXIJC), which takes place at one of the world’s tightest tracks, Happy Valley Racecourse.

“It’s the jockeys’ challenge that everyone wants to be invited for, so it’s a great honour to be selected and represent the UAE,” said Durcan.

“I’ve ridden in Hong Kong before, but only at Sha Tin for the International Races. I have seen Happy Valley on TV and the boys say it’s like riding at Chester in England but the other way around. The turns look incredibly tight – it must be one of the sharpest tracks in the world.

“All our rides come out of a hat, but hopefully I’ll get lucky and get some good rides and do okay.”

Durcan will be competing against some of the world’s finest riders, including former CXIJC champions Olivier Peslier (1998, 2006), Andrasch Starke (2000, 2005), Douglas Whyte (2002), Damien Oliver (2003) and Christophe Soumillon (tied in 2004).

All 12 jockeys are randomly allocated their mounts and the winner will be the one accumulating most points. The champion jockey will receive HK$200,000 (Around AED 95,000) and a trophy. HK$100,000 will go to the runner-up.

“There are some brilliant jockeys riding at the challenge, some lovely lads, and I can’t wait to get out there.”

He came to the Arabian Gulf because he felt he would not make a living as a jockey in the UK. Eight years after moving to Dubai to ride Durcan is representing the UAE against the best jockeys in the game.
Typically, he attributes to “the people who have helped me and shown faith in my abilities.” Those include Paddy Rudkin, the trainer who first gave him a ride when he arrived in Dubai in 1997 and Shaikh Rashid bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, who took the plunge to make the relative unknown rider his number one stable jockey in 2000.

That led to Durcan’s big breakthrough. Thanks, he says, to the leading owner’s horses he took the Champion Jockey title with his 58th winner and went on to clinch two more big name races in the World Cup meeting.

Those memorable winners were Rhythm Band in the Dubai Duty Free and Conflict in the Godolphin Mile. He was ‘spotted’ from afar in that first championship season of 1999/2000.

UK trainers and owners realised there was a new talent on the block and, riding as a freelance, he booted home 23 winners that summer season.

For a man who left the UK to explore the unknown pastures of the Middle East as soon as he lost his apprentice allowance, the soft-spoken Irishman has made an impressive mark.

Six UAE jockeys championships later Durcan is now one of the most sought after jockeys in Europe and the Far East, as well as the Middle East.

Among Durcan’s biggest winners so far are the Stanley Leisure Sprint Cup on Pipalong in 2000 and 2003, the Rockfel Stakes on Cairns in 2003 and Cheshire Oaks on Hidden Hope in 2004.

Yet, for a talented man at the peak of his powers, he remains remarklably modest and generous to others, as previews interviews with ‘trackwork’ illustrate.

“A lot of my success had been about luck and being in the right place at the right moment and coming out here just opened up another avenue. Once I landed out here I had the right people helping me, which you always need in any walk of life, especially in sport.

“The racing here in the UAE was a lot smaller when I came than it is now but it was on the way up and we all knew it was on the way up. I’d heard plenty about it and was really interested to come out and have a look for myself, especially when I realized that my apprenticeship was about to end over the winter. I realized that if I came here for the winter and then went back to England I wouldn’t be missing out on anything at all. Then everything worked out well and I was asked to stay on so everything fell into place.”

He says being the champion jockey was the furthest thing from his mind back in the early days.

“It never entered my head but I had been helped by the right people. When I first arrived Paddy Rudkin was a major help because he took me for the first season and brought me back for the second. At the end of that season His Excellency Shaikh Rashid offered me the position of number one rider and being number one rider to him out here is the best riding position you can have. I wasn’t expecting it and I was obviously flattered by it but I was a little bit apprehensive about how it would pan out because there were a lot of bigger names that he might have offered it to.

“When everything panned out well here I made my mind up that I had to go back to England and have another bash at it so I went back to square one, looked up my former agent and tried my luck. It was slow because I hadn’t ridden in England for a while but people are loyal, people are supportive and they helped me to get back into it. But coming out here every winter you ride some lovely, lovely horses and it makes life easy, you know.”

Durcan doesn’t have to much trouble making the weight but he doesn’t find it as easy as some. Similarly, he takes great pride in his discipline and fitness routine.

“It’s like every sport, barring that you’re a complete natural, which I am not. We all have to ride work and we all have to stay fit. There’s a lot more to it than sitting on a horse on race day, there’s the riding out, you have to help your owners make plans for horses, you have to have an opinion and you have to show you know what you’re on about.

“I’m luckier than most, with my weight. I still have to be ‘Jimmy sensible’ with it but I don’t have to put myself into as much hardship with dieting as some do.”

After the Hong Kong gala race Durcan will be fly back to Dubai early the next morning, in time for the Nad Al Sheba meeting on December 6. However, he could be returning to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong International Races on December 9 to ride Al Qasi.

“I am on standby to ride him in the Mile, but I can’t stay out there after Wednesday’s challenge, as there’s racing back here in the UAE,” added Durcan.

Ryan Moore, who returns to the UAE shortly for a sixth consecutive season, is also in action at the challenge, representing his native Great Britain.

Riders competing: Ted Durcan (United Arab Emirates), Yasunari Iwata (Japan), Ryan Moore (Great Britain), Damien Oliver (Australia), Olivier Peslier (France), Pat Smullen (Ireland), Christophe Soumillon (France), Andrasch Starke (Germany), Douglas Whyte (Hong Kong), Emma-Jayne Wilson (Canada). *The leading local Hong Kong rider at the end of racing on Saturday, 1 December and one more top international rider will join the line-up.