"It just takes that one special one, and they’re hard to come by, but that’s all it takes," says Al Shahania’s Dean Lavy.

Distant Beginnings

Growing up in Michigan, he would move with his family to the mecca of horse racing in the United States, Kentucky, and it was here that his passion for horses really began.

"That goes back a few years anyway, into the late 70s and early 80s. When I was actually in high school, we moved from the northern state of Michigan to Kentucky, which, as you know, is horse country.

"At the time, a lot of my friends were working part-time with the horses, and I've always had a love for animals, so I started doing it as a summer job."

"And you know you get hooked!" I've worked with quarter horses, ponies, standardbreds, saddlebreds, and then I got into thoroughbreds straight out of school.

"Growing up in Michigan, I always had a love for the outdoors, animals, hunting, fishing, and this kind of thing.

"I got introduced to horses when I was in Kentucky, and, you know, you fall in love with them and it turns into a passion."

"That passion for horses really came when I began working with them. They're such magnificent creatures."They all have their own personalities, a lot more personality than a lot of people give them credit for because they don't deal with horses."

Once he embraced his passion as a potential career, it really took shape, as Lavy said.

 Royal Connections

"It all began back in the early 80s when I started working full time with thoroughbreds, and I then was with a local farm in Kentucky for five years before taking a job with the Maktoum family, the Royal family of Dubai, at Gainsborough Stud in Kentucky.

"I was there for 26 years, and then I came from there to Qatar, and I’ve been in Doha now for 10 years."

The move marked more than a change of destination for Lavy; it also marked his introduction to Arabian horses.

"I made the switch to Arabians, you know. We have thoroughbreds, Arabians, show horses, and endurance horses; it's a mixed discipline here in Doha.

"But I've really enjoyed the transition to the Arabian horses."

The time he spent working for the Maktoum family over the course of close to three decades is an experience that Lavy reflects on as helping set him up for his current role.

"Obviously, it had some influence on it."My dealings with the Arab culture for that length of time were attractive to the guys here in Qatar.

"Like I said, I was there for 26 years with the Maktoums. The first twenty years were spent with Maktoum Al Maktoum, followed by six years with Mohammed bin Rashid.Then I took a break after things changed a little bit logistically for me there. We were left on, and I was very grateful to be a part of it, but some of the perks that I had I lost, which is fair enough when you transition from owners.

Changing things around

"So I took a year off and went into electrical contracting, traveled, and project managed some jobs; I also like construction and that sort of thing; then I started looking again, and they contacted me from Doha.

"I had a big interest." It was definitely my background in Dubai that attracted them. Culturally, it helps if you have been with the people for a long time. "It's a different world, and they're fantastic people."

The move to Qatar

Arabian horses are embedded in the culture of Qatar, and it was the country’s heritage from which Al Shahania Stud was created by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Regarded as a visionary, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed has over the years transformed the stud into one of the most prestigious equine properties in the Middle East and a leader in Arabian breeding and racing.

"I've really enjoyed it here and have been very lucky to be here with Sheikh Mohammed." His passion for the game and his drive "He's very involved day to day here with the breeding and the racing, and I’m very actively involved with him on the phone almost every day," Lavy adds.

"His passion pushes you as well, and we've been very fortunate obviously; it takes some skill, but he also has the right horses, and we've got the right facility, which we've improved a lot, but you have to keep up with the times."

Based in the heart of Qatar, the prestigious stud property is an oasis in the desert, irrigated solely with groundwater, and the property now boasts over 240 stables, 125 paddocks spread over 100 acres of grassland, an equine swimming pool, its own private 2000-meter training track, and much more.

The stud has also recently invested in a second property based in the world-renowned breeding lands of Normandy, France.

"I'm involved with the breeding as well as the race placement and the training. We have a farm in France, and so I am very involved with that farm as well. Doha is the hub, and everything comes through here.

"It's been a fun ride, and I'm proud of this place; we've put a lot of effort into it."We have spas, walkers, a swimming pool, new stables, and lots of paddocks. "We put in a new 2000-meter grass track, and Sheikh Mohammed has been very gracious in allowing us to improve the property as well."

Greatness at Al Shahania

With leading facilities, the stud has had great success and is now regarded as one of the world's leading Arabian horse racing operations, having bred and raced multiple Group 1 winners.

The first horse to achieve Group One level was Hermival, who came in 3rd in the 2000 Guineas in Newmarket and then finished 2nd in the St. James's Palace Stakes in Ascot. Then a few months later, Flotilla went on to win the first Group 1 for H.H. Sheikh Mohammed by bringing home the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She then also became the first classic winner for the stable by winning the 2013 French Guineas.

Since then, their major wins and champion horses have been plentiful, as Lavy said.

"Well, I mean, there have been numerous great horses for us: Assy, Gazwan, and Ebraz, and then you have fillies like Djainka Des Forges, Monia, McKeefa, and Areej.

"I’ve been very lucky to be around them all, but obviously Ebraz is one of the top ones since I’ve been involved, winning the Triple Crown, and what a champion he was." We are really looking forward to his next career as a stallion.

"I've been extremely lucky to be around a lot of top Arabian horses, some of the best in the world." "It's been quite the experience."

The Similarities

Having experienced some of the best Arabians ever to race, Lavy told me that although they had a lot in common with thoroughbreds, they were very different.

"There are a lot of similarities between the Arabian and the thoroughbreds, but just a speed difference." The mentalities are a little bit different, but it’s been interesting.

"The thoroughbreds seem to have more of a workhorse mentality." You know they just go, go, go, and you can push them and get more out of them.

"The Arabs sometimes are too smart, and they don’t want to go to work every day, and the more you push them, the further they back up on you."

"Even if they are the best ones, Ebraz, for example, is obviously one of the best horses in the world, but you would have never picked him in the morning. He hated to go to work in the morning, but he showed up when it was time to run. We've discovered that many of the good ones we're dealing with now are just a little bit trickier.

The stud started with a mare called Akie Croix Noir and a stallion called Djendel, both from the most prestigious and historic French Arabian bloodlines. The breeding programme has expanded to boast one of the world's best broodmare bands and nine stallions at stud.

Lavy commented on the importance of pedigree as well as ensuring the bloodline stays rich and continues through generations into the future.

"We're seeing it change a lot." You talk about pedigree, and pedigree is changing a lot in the Arabian horses. You're starting to see a lot more speed in the Arabian, and I think this is becoming vitally important.

"Our families, in particular, are classic distance Arabians ranging from 2000 to 2400 meters.Now we're seeing so much speed getting injected into racing, especially in the Middle East. In Europe, we are still seeing them go pretty slowly until the end, in the last 400 metres they run.

"In the Middle East, racing is growing so huge with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, and now here in Qatar, and in the speed, you see such a difference." "Now it's speed as soon as the gate opens, and you're seeing this with the 2000-meter races and the 2400-meter races, so pedigrees are changing a bit, and we're starting to see more similarities between thoroughbred breeding and the Arabians, and trying to inject speed into the Arabians."

2023 GCC campaign

The current crop of stars are being prepared to be unleashed on the Qatar Cup campaign leading into the World Cup Carnival in Dubai, as Lavy commented.

The colt Samlla returns to the track after winning two Group Ones last year in the Qatar International Stakes and Qatar International Cup, as well as the Group 2 French Arabian Breeders Challenge Sprint last September.

He is being prepared for the 2000-meter dirt race in Saudi Arabia and is continuing to show what he can do as a 5-year-old.

"Obviously, we're very pleased with him.He's homebred for us by Assy out of one of our own horses (Djakera Des Forges). The Forges family, which includes Djainka Des Forges, is a fantastic French producing line.The important thing is that Assy always had a little bit of speed, and so that’s what we are seeing the injection of.

"Samlla started off as more of a 1600-metre horse. He was a fantastic miler, and then we see now with his age that he's stretching out. He did win at 2000 metres early on, but now, speaking with Francois Rohaut (his trainer), his distance gets further and further, so we are much happier with him.

"His transition to dirt has been okay, and we think he’s going to do well." He recently ran on the poly in Pau and was very impressive at 2000 metres wire-to-wire win like a morning workout.

"So we are excited to see him go, and I think he can run on multiple surfaces, so that’s exciting, and maybe that then leads to the Kayhala Classic and things like this, and then I think in the future World Cup racing or Arc de Triomphe weekend is in his wheelhouse."

"I think the distance is going to be there, and even though he is five, we’re excited." These guys run until they’re eight or nine, so we are excited about how he has transitioned.

"It’s his first time on the dirt, but if he goes to Saudi and handles it well, we will want to look at the DWC for sure."

"He is based in France, so we can target more of the international programme with him."

The filly Image du Croate is being prepared for a turf campaign in Saudi Arabia.

Last season, she took out the Qatar Oaks, but in 2021, she took out the Group 3 Prix Nevada and the Group 1 Qatar Arabian Trophy in Saint-Cloud.

"Well, she is Munjiz’s filly out of Beanie du Croate. She, as a three-year-old winning at Saint-Cloud, was extremely impressive, and she came back nicely, but then she had a little bit of a setback health-wise early in April of last year, and she didn't run.

"So we decided to give her a fresh look and bring her to Doha." We always thought she'd enjoy the hard and fast, as well as a change of scenery.After that, we were happy with her. In her first run, she ran third, and then she came back and won the Oaks.

"So, she's going to go to Saudi for the 2100 metres on the turf, and she's training very well, and we are very pleased with her."

The Stud had been looking to campaign a group of their stars, with Amyr Du Soleil (GB), Dawi (FR), Hameed (FR), Hargan (FR), Image Du Croate (FR), Ragdan (FR) nominated for the Al Mneefah Cup, and Amyr Du Soleil (GB) and Divine Princess (FR) nominated for the Obaiya Arabian Classic.

However, plans change, and Lavy commented on future campaigns in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

"We will only run Samlla on the dirt and Image du Croate on the turf."

Different Strokes

"The problem with the Saudi Carnival is that it is a week after the Amir Sword here. So it’s very difficult and strategic to do, and obviously, there is a lot of pride in the race for Doha, and that's a huge weekend for us. This is our busiest weekend of the year.

"So, we have got to save some of our horses for that weekend. With horses like Hargan and Amyr Du Soleil, we want to target the Amir Sword with a couple of horses, but we also have the internationals, the GCC, and different distance racing. So, we have to have eight or ten animals to handle the racing in Doha for the Amir Sword weekend.

"We’ve chosen those two to go to Saudi because we want to go and experience it. "I think Saudi has done a fantastic job; it's booming right now, and we want to be a part of that."

With Hareeb, Hargan, Image Du Croate, Mual'em, and Saad all nominated for the Kahayla Classic, Lavy commented on possible travellers for the Dubai World Cup Carnival.

"Yeah, those guys are all target horses for that because we feel like they can handle the dirt.” So they'll get a run Amir Sword week, putting us a month away from the Dubai World Cup.

"After their runs in Doha, we will make a decision." We have pre-entered those races, but we will base them on their runs here in two weeks. But we definitely want to target DWC with a couple of horses."

With a list of stars, Lavy admits that it was different with Arabians when it came to younger stars.

"We take our time with the Arabians, you know; they're typically a little bit slower."

"You know we had such big stars in the past. Methgal is still on the table. He's probably going to make an appearance this summer in Europe again. We've given him some nice time off and given him a break, but we've got a target in mind. For his career, he could go to Goodwood or something similar.He could eventually become a stallion for us.

"Mon'nia, she has gone to the breeding shed." She’s a past Amir Sword winner for us. We also have Divine Princess, sister to Lady Princess, who has just gone back into training. She had a setback last year; she’s run a couple of times for us, which has been a little bit disappointing so far, but she’s going to run back again.

"We have a lot of three-year-olds who just turned four and who, you know, we don't push so we can have a little bit of a run.Our season ends at the end of April this year in Doha, so maybe we will let them run once or twice here before the end of the season, and then we will put them away and bring them back as three-year-olds turning four and four-year-olds turning five.

"We have a lot of promising young ones but don't really have anything to mention yet, but we always have something coming."

"We also have about 45 in training in France that are either racing or training." For training, we use Mrs. Bernard and Tomas Fourcey, and we use Francois Rohaut mainly in France.

"It just takes that one special one, and they’re hard to come by, but that’s all it takes."

Having won multiple Group Ones, the goals do not change much when it comes to continued success internationally.

"We’ve won races at the World Cup a couple of times; on Arc weekend, we’ve won the World Cup there five times, and we’ve won the Amir Sword sixteen times."

"We ran in Abu Dhabi for the first time last year with Hoggar De Lardus, and he ran second to Lady Princess." We want to target Saudi Arabia and big races like Goodwood and part of the Triple Crown in Doha.

Growth of the Regional Racing Industry

"I believe the Middle East has a lot of racing."not just for Arabians but for thoroughbreds as well. between Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Saudi Arabia, and hopefully Bahrain in the future. I think Bahrain has done a fantastic job with the carnival they have now. There's a lot of good racing in the Middle East.

"I think we are going to see a lot of Europeans transition here." "Because in the winter there isn’t a lot in Europe, and the money is huge here now."

From a 15-year-old boy discovering horses for the first time through his current position as manager of one of the leading Arabian studs in the world, Lavy has learned invaluable lessons, as you added.

"Horses are very humbling animals. The horse business in general is a very small world, as massive as it may seem. That's what makes it so cool; I think it is one of the very unique industries where I can come to Australia, Hong Kong, China, France, and England and I'm always going to see people I know.

"I think it's a big family, and as much as we want to compete against each other, we still wish everybody the best at the end of the day." We want our horses and jockeys to be safe, and I think it's a pretty cool industry as a whole. The people in this part of the world are very genuine and love their horses.

"We all want to compete and win. It's a fantastic industry."