Thanks for letting us know where this horse originated from! It's good to know that SA horses are doing well in the UAE!
You beat me to the line with regard to your comments on how a horse like this got there, however!
The UAE buyers flock to Australia every year looking for suitable future champion endurance horses. The ones they are mainly interested in are the ones that have been brought along slowly for a number of years, and have good legs and recovery rates. These guys know what a winning horse needs: long slow distance work for 3 or 4 years. So, rather than spend the time doing this, they scour the world looking for horses that are at this standard.
If the owner wishes to sell this horse to the UAE buyers, so be it. A great horse with a great preparation goes to a new owner, and the money that changes hands is a lot more than normal!
Of course it means that many of our best horses end up over there (doing well!), and we are left with a small pool of world-class horses here, but thousands more young ones to take their place.
So, it's not just that the UAE 'pops' up with a world champion horse that might 'seem' to come from nowhere.... what is happening is that said world champion horse has been developed slowly elsewhere, then brought on with the highest level of training science available to truly show its potential. This most likely would never happen to this horse had it stayed at home.
As has been previously mentioned, many of these top level horses in the UAE are around for many many seasons, and continue to compete into their late teens and early twenties.
Best regards
Jay Randle SPLENDACREST ENDURANCE TRAINING www.freewebs.com/splendacrest
