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| Staff Writer |
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Moving into a new home and resettling is hard. But Australian Michael Costa is showing that moving a long way from home - and flourishing - is possible with the correct set of circumstances. Costa moved from his native country to Dubai in 2022 to be the exclusive trainer for the ARM racing operation of HRH Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Taking over the new job would require a significant shift in understanding cultural norms and working with a much larger team.
“Last year, I came right in the middle of summer, and the horses needed to start training to get ready for the season, and when I arrived, I was walking into a large band of staff, a number of horses,” Costa said. “That’s what you’ve got from the season. There’s not a lot of tweaks or changes you can make. You’ve got to, you’ve got to live with what you’ve got. We made the best of what we had last season, and that was the goal last season: to get the absolute best and greatest out of everything we had.”
Costa’s success in the job has shown why he has picked up 293 career victories during his accomplished training career. Costa’s first winner came with Daddy Warbuck in 2012. To start the 2023-24 season, Costa is atop the trainer’s rankings with 14 wins in 37 runs.
There is no mistaking what the stable’s ambition is.
“We just want to be a force to be reckoned with back in Dubai,” Costa said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”
Costa could build quickly at his new job because he had the tools to succeed. He had a small crew when training on the Gold Coast in Australia. In Dubai, he has around 60 horses to work with, not to mention more staff. With the extra help on hand, Costa was able to implement his philosophy more quickly.
“This year, we’ve emailed ’em to implement different systems in place, and I’ve had the whole summer to, with the horses too, to get them ready for the start of the season,” Costa said. “So, it’s just been about having a bit more time with the horses and all the hard work with the staff over the summer, which has allowed us to sort of hit the ground running.”
What has been important for Costa has been integrating the ideas of others into training. While he said the Australian way has plenty of similarities, there are major differences as well.
“Probably the biggest thing that I’ve had to adapt is in Australia, we use horse races to progress to get them over further journeys,” Costa said. “Here in Dubai, with the dirt tracks, your horse has to be fit. There’s really nowhere to hide.”
Keeping horses fit is important because of the length of the season. If a horse isn’t fit, finding opportunities to compete could be limited or non-existent.
“So, you’ve really got to make sure that your horse is very close to the mark heading into their race because there might not be another opportunity for a little period of time pending their condition and also the combination of that track surface as well. It’s testing in order that you, you’ve got to make sure that your horse is, is close to the mark,” Costa said.
Despite having a short amount of time to adjust last season, Costa and his staff were able to produce some success right away by making the best of what they had.
“And we managed to do that,” Costa said. “We finished with the top leading strike rate of the trainers in the UAE last year. So, it was a, it was a good achievement, but we knew we had, we had a lot more to achieve and that’s where we’re heading into this year and the years ahead.”
Costa stated that the talented Mouheeb would be put away at the start of the season. The horse has ten career victories across different types of races.
This year, we’ll be just saving him for the season’s back end. He’ll look to kick off near about January and then head into the mile races come March.”
2YO Lahfaty has already showcased his potential this season. Lahfaty picked up a victory on 24th Nov at Meydan.
What stands out to Costa is how young the stable is.
“The rest of the stable is his highness’ approach to buy yearlings and not form horses,” Costa said. “So, we’ve got a relatively young stable. So, I would say the 2YOs are our best opportunity of having strong campaigns come later in the season.”
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When Costa was brought in, he understood the plan. The stable wanted to try to completely restock the pipeline with horses.
“It was His Highness’s approach that we wanted to do a complete rebuild of the stable and start, start with yearlings,” Costa said. “The other trends in UAE adopt more of a form horse approach with triad horses and breeze up horses. So, we’ve gone, we’ve gone at a different angle. So, this year we really just, went and experienced as many sales as possible just to see what was going to work with our model. And we did most of our buying at the Keeneland September sale there. So that’d be our main, main approach for this year.”
They ended up purchasing 12 colts. Costa is excited to get them to come to the stable. He believes it will give them an opportunity to experiment.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Costa said. “There was a model the other trainers sort of took. But this is the approach that we feel would be best for our stable moving forward and for the goals that we’ve got moving ahead as well.”
Results Have Already Been Coming
The 2023-24 season has gotten off to a strong start for Costa. The stable has a strike rate of 32.4 percent to start. But winning races isn’t something that Costa is satisfied with doing once or twice.
Over his career, Costa has brought in US$8.2 million in prize money. Costa’s win percentage for his career is 20 percent, while his horses have a 46 percent place rate. Over Costa’s past 50 races, his horses win at a 28 percent clip.
“Yeah, it’s been a great start to the season, and you know as a trainer, you’re never quite content unless everything wins,” Costa said. “It’s been a great start, but there’s still a lot to achieve, and we’ll just keep it, keep it simmering away and keep the winning streak going as well.”
Costa’s move to Dubai was interesting for everyone in his household. In October, his wife, Melanie, gave birth to their fourth child, a daughter. In addition to adjusting to an entirely new home country, Costa’s three boys are also adapting to having another girl in the house.
“The three boys are loving life in Dubai,” Costa said. “The property here, which is a 600-acre block right in the heart of Dubai, is as close to Australian sort of living as you could get here in Dubai and the desert.”
Trying to get used to the heat in the summer hasn’t been too bad for Costa. Dealing with the heat of taking over such a demanding job hasn’t weighed too heavily on him either.
Costa has been staying even-keeled and enjoying the journey. Continuing to pick up victories will make things easier.
“I’m pretty lucky I walked into a stable with a great staffing band and everyone from the management right down to the riders, the grooms and everyone and then the racetrack management,” Costa said. “I’m more of a, you know, a conductor. I’m just playing music and pointing people in the right way. This is a game that you can definitely get yourself, you know, tied in a knot and stressed out. But when you’ve got a good support team like that and His Highness backing your judgment, there’s really no reason for not having success. So, I think while you could get yourself frustrated in certain situations, you just remind yourself that I’m in a very lucky position to have his honest support. So, I’m grateful for that. I’m just grateful for the opportunity. There’s no need to, uh, to get too, too frustrated.”