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| Staff Writer |
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Bethell has an exciting horse, and we can’t wait to see him gallop down the Meydan straight. Ten Furlongs chats to the Group winning English trainer about his star and what’s in store for Artistic Rifles in Dubai.
Q: What are your plans for Artistic Rifles? What races are looking to enter him in?
A: I'm going to bring him over on the first shipment on the fifth of January. His first race will be in the Zabeel mile on the 27th of January. It is going to be a prep run before going to race in the Jebel Hatta.
Q: And would you look at a Saudi Run beyond that? Or would that be Dubai World Cup?
A: No, it would just be two runs in Dubai unless he went on to win The Jebel Hatta. He needs plenty of time between the races.
Q: What kind of a horse is he to train? Do you think he'll enjoy the trip over?
A: Obviously, it’s all new to him, flying and everything. So, we'll just have to see how he will take the travel. He is a big heavy horse and I'm hoping we'll have a good run within the next three weeks in England. We will get him as fit as possible before going out there. But I think he will be right for Dubai. Fingers crossed we will do good.
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Q: Will you be coming over with him?
A: I would imagine I will be out there maybe a week before the race in January, and then maybe a week before the race in March, or February. I haven't made any plans just yet.
Q: How did Artistic Rifles come to you? What was the story?
A: He came to me through a contract. It’s a great story. He was trained in England first and then in Italy as his current owners are Italian. He then came back to England. His owner, Mr. Rossi of Zaro SRL asked me to win a race, get some English form for him and then sell him.
He won the first time out for us in England. And then he just had a couple of niggly setbacks after that, nothing serious. He went straight to the sales after his win. But we didn't get a bid of £4000 for him. And so I said to him, don't worry, we'll take him to the field for two months. And that's what we did. And we never looked back last year. He improved from a rating of 84 to 109. So far he’s won a Group Three and he won £100,000 in prize money in the process.
Q: Have you or your dad come out for the Carnival before? Was this the first time that you're coming out?
A: So my father, he actually trained one horse out there Mine. And he placed in three races out there. And then, I ran Moss Gill out there last year in the Gr.1 Al Quoz Sprint but it didn't quite work out the way I would have liked to have done but you know that’s racing.