Halford looking forward to trio of runners in Dubai Michael Halford is already off the mark for 2020 after Mecklenburg's win at Dundalk on January 3rd, but much of the Copper Beech Stable handler's attentions are now on Dubai. The Dubai Racing Carnival began recently and will continue on until the first week in March with racing every Thursday. There’s a three week gap then from the first week in March until the end of March to the Dubai World Cup night. "There’s extraordinary prize-money and wonderful facilities to train the horses in out there. You’re taken out by invitation," said Halford. "We’ve been lucky enough over the years to have had plenty of horses qualified, and for numerous years we’ve been out there and have had great success. "Certerach’s win out there (in the 2014 Group Two Dubai Gold Cup) was a very special night. It was a dream really to win a million dollar race. "It was for a great owner and supporter of ours in Paul Rooney. We had a wonderful night and we still have him (Certerach) at home. "It can’t be an after-thought to be going there. With one horse in particular, Massif Central, we’ve had it in our heads all year to bring him there. "It was in the back of my head with Surrounding as well, who has been a wonderful servant all year for us. I thought she’d like it. "The one that sort of popped up out of nowhere was Simsir. He won his maiden first time out at Cork before winning a winner’s race at Dundalk. "We didn’t get him sold or anything so we said we’d take him to Dubai. "We gave him a run at Dundalk before Christmas and he ran a real good race. He’s going out there lightly-raced and he looks like a horse with a good profile to go there. "He’s improving and he’s four-years-of-age, he’s a smashing horse, so hopefully he still has the scope to improve. "It probably does (take them time to acclimatise) but the fact that they are going from cold to warm does help and they pick up pretty quickly out there. "We train our horses under lights, so they’d have been in a longer day per-say than we’d have had with natural day-light so it wouldn’t be as big a shock for them. "The entries are on Monday so we look forward to that. Both (Simsir and Surrounding) are training well. Assistant trainer Fabian Burke is out there, and one of our head lads, Robbie Gallagher, has gone there forever and a day for us, so they are very experienced. "We get good feed-back and they say the horses are really well. I’m looking forward to seeing them. Ronan (Whelan) is coming out with me and he’ll sit on them on Monday and Tuesday morning and fingers crossed. "Surrounding is in a Group Two race. She’s already a multiple Listed winner and a Group Three winner. It’d be nice to get some Group Two form with her. "Traditionally there haven’t been that many fillies out there to race, so that’ll probably be a small enough field. "Simsir is going to run in a Listed race. I think he’s ready for the step-up in class but again it’ll depend on what turns up on the night. I think he’ll love the track and the vibes that I’m getting suggest he’s in good form. "I think horses need to be bred for the Dirt track. It’s a different type of horse and different type of racing and it doesn’t particularly suit the horses coming from Europe. "We’ve given that a miss for the last few years but the grass track is just amazing. "Obviously it’s man-made, with a beautiful surface, the bends are cambered and just watching yesterday evening they had plenty of rain which would be unusual enough. "It went a little bit soft on them but it dries out very quickly. "They do an amazing job minding it and repairing it after every meeting — it’s just a top class surface. Any horse would enjoy it. "The horses headed first to Newmarket where they over-nighted, and they flew from Stansted. "The flight is about seven and a half hours or so. The trip over to Newmarket is actually longer. It probably took them about twelve hours. "They travelled well. We travel them loose in a big lorry. They were very comfortable — they took it all in their stride. "I like to send them out there fit. I think it’s an advantage not to have to train them hard when they get there — not to be training them in the heat. "We have our own swimming pool at home and the horses swim a lot. I like to keep them fresh with an edge on them. "Our experience is that they run better that way. "They’d have a breeze before they’d race. There are some lovely training tracks there as well. "They’d have to improve on what they’ve shown to get an invite to World Cup night but it’d be great if they did. "Surrounding also has an entry for that big night out in Saudi at the end of February. We’ll see how she goes and if she gets invited to there. There’s plenty to look forward to. "Simsir is hopefully going to improve and Massif Central seems to be enjoying himself so the dream is still alive with them."
