Dubai, seen by many for so long as an almost untouchable safe haven, came under attack by Iran at the weekend. With commercial aircraft grounded, many visitors in the racing world have been left stranded.
Residents, holidaymakers and the racing world received a reminder of Dubai’s geopolitical location last weekend when the United Arab Emirates, so long something of a playground and safe haven, found itself on the receiving end of retaliatory Iranian missile and drone strikes after a US-Israeli operation killed Ayatollah Khamenei.
The UAE’s defences sprang into action and Super Saturday at Meydan went ahead, even with Sheikh Mohammed in attendance, but (though at this stage they’re set to be held) the viability of putting on Friday’s card at Meydan, Bahrain’s King’s Cup meeting and even the Dubai World Cup at the end of the month has been a topic of discussion.
For the time being, aerial activity appears to have died down but a collection of European racing professionals remain stranded in Dubai, whose airport (from which flights were suspended) has sustained damage.
Rishi Persad is one racing personality stuck in the Middle East and provided an update on the Nick Luck Daily podcast.
Here’s what he had to say…
We’re doing OK. All the days are assimilating into one repeated experience, and I think, very simply, the mood is that we have to be patient.
There was slight surprise when we heard about the intention for the meeting in Dubai on Friday to go ahead, and the one in Bahrain, primarily because there’s a huge element of concern as there are still missile interceptions and explosions that we’re seeing and getting news of.
So, we’re surprised that a sporting event is going to take place in either Bahrain or Dubai this week, but the mood amongst the troops is – and I guess everyone is experiencing it in different ways – that idea of understanding that we’re in a situation that you’ve never really experienced before.
To be entirely honest, some of believe it’s life-threatening.
We haven’t got a manual for how to cope, so we’re just kind of doing what comes naturally to us.
At the moment, it’s a case of just trying to make things as normal as possible, though that doesn’t mean we haven’t been keeping an eye on what’s going on around the world.
Most of us have been here for four or five days. It’s a waiting game and there’s very little else you can do.
Following everything on social media and various news outlets at the start of the conflict, by the end of Saturday, the first numbers I saw from a British perspective when it came to getting people home was 20,000. Since then, I’ve seen 76,000 quoted.
It’s hard to ascertain just what’s most accurate, but obviously a lot of flights have been affected. The general process is that each day you get an update saying airspace will remain closed until 3pm the next day.
We’re hearing news back home and amongst us that perhaps there’s some sort of UK Government plan to return British nationals home, but there has been nothing concrete on that.
British Government guidelines are still to seek shelter and there has been a UAE message I’ve read that said to stay at home.
The streets are very quiet from what we can see. Not many people are venturing too far from where we are in our hotel. There’s a very similar feel to the Covid lockdowns six years ago.
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