It’s hard to imagine a more relaxed character than Adrie De Vries. In life and on the racetrack, he rarely seems ruffled. At the stables in the morning, he’s very much at home. As first jockey to Fawzi Nass in Dubai, the Dutchman is extremely hands-on, a role he relishes.
“Horses are my life,” he says, taking a seat outside Nass’s base at Desert Stables, where he spends more time than the trainer, who also has a base in Bahrain.
“I’m here most mornings, unless they’ve worked the day before and are only trotting,” says De Vries. “That gives me a day off. But I like to do it. I like to see the horses every day – it’s great. I help out a little bit with everything; we speak about which races to pick, and it’s nice to be involved.”
A youthful 52, De Vries has ridden in the UAE since the early 1990s. However, he first arrived in the country even earlier than that, when just a teenager.
“I came here first with a little Arabian for Sheikh Mansour. I was 17 years old, never been on a plane before, and I travelled with the horse to Abu Dhabi – 35 years ago - and that was my first experience of the Emirates.”
He’s come a long way since, numbering 140 local winners from around 1,400 rides. Not a bad strike rate, but then he’s a talented jockey, and a very experienced one, having started riding in races when he was just 15. That was in Holland, but the bulk of his winners have come in Germany, where he is attached to the Yasmin Almenrader stable during the summer. He is currently world-ranked 56 in the TRC jockey standings.
“I started going to Germany in the 1980s because there was less and less racing in Holland,” he says. “I’m based in Holland, but I live close to the border so that it’s not too far from the main tracks in Germany.
“My main stable at the moment is Yasmin Almenrader, and I’ve been there for about three years. I had a big job with Markus Klug for four years before that. I’ve ridden for most of the big stables in Germany, so I’m very happy with that.”
His biggest success in Germany came in 2018, when he landed the G1 Deutsches Derby on Weltstar for Klug - “It took me a long time to win the German Derby, so that was a big relief” – but there have been plenty of big race successes; few higher-profile than when Energizer, trained by Jens Hirschberger, ran away with Royal Ascot’s G3 Tercentenary Stakes in 2012.
“Energizer was a nice surprise; that horse winning at Ascot. It was one of my greatest experiences to have a winner there,” he remembers.
Huge supporter
Energizer subsequently joined Godolphin and never won again, including in three starts in Dubai.
His jockey has done far better and has plenty to look forward to this season. The current Nass stable star is G1 Maktoum Challenge Round 3 winner Salute The Soldier, who finished last season with a creditable fifth in the Dubai World Cup behind Mystic Guide.
“[Maktoum Challenge Round 3] was my first Thoroughbred Group 1 winner in Dubai, so it’s definitely the highlight of my time here,” he says. “It’s very important for me to have big winners here as Fawzi has been a huge supporter for the last couple of years, and Sheikh Nasser [Al Khalifa, co-owner] is investing a lot of money into the game.”
Salute The Soldier will head to the World Cup again, probably via a trip to try to plunder the Saudi Cup’s riches. “He gets stronger and stronger each year,” reports his jockey. “We’re just taking it easy with him now as we don’t want him peaking too soon; the big ones are coming up in February and March. He’s just starting to do a little bit of fast work now.”
Salute The Soldier might be joined on his Saudi sojourn by the an exciting new recruit, Purebred Arabian RB Rich Lyke Me, who hosed up on local debut in the G2 Bani Yas at Meydan.
“Fawzi was looking for Arabians for quite a bit of time and it seems he’s found a proper one,” says De Vries. “He was speaking about the Saudi Cup [meeting] for him; it’s close to the World Cup but maybe the Arabians can handle the travelling better than the Thoroughbreds.”
De Vries’s association with Nass goes back some time, and the pair share a laid-back outlook.
“[2012 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner] Krypton Factor was one of the first horses I rode for him [in 2017],” he says. “We get on really well and he’s a pleasure to ride for – he doesn’t give many instructions and he knows the game. He’s a great sportsman and can take losing because he understands the sport.”
De Vries clearly has a deep understanding too. Few ride races better from the back of the field, from where he’s something of a master at weaving through rivals. He’s a proper horseman, and won’t be leaving the sport anytime soon, even if he will eventually hang up his boots.
“I always take it year by year,” he says. “I’m fit, but the weight [his minimum is 56 kilos] has always been a bit of an issue, because I’m quite tall. But it’s not a great problem and I don’t have any back issues, anything like that. As long as nice horses come along, like Salute The Soldier, then it’s great fun. I still love the game.”
Surely, though, training has to be in the plans?
“I would love to,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in training. For sure, after I stop riding, I’ll keep on doing something in the sport and training could be one thing. I’d love to have a little stable here in Dubai. That would be great.”
If he does take up training, then he’s likely to approach it with the same quiet, cheerful attitude he’s had throughout his riding career, to which he remains devoted. ‘What do you do when you’re not working’ isn’t a question that applies here.
“It’s my life, really. I watch racing, I’m interested in breeding … it’s just horses, really,” says the jockey, who along with wife Lorna has two sons, Liam and Mike, 26 and 23. “My wife and I have a few yearlings with a friend, which is exciting. They’re in Germany now, so that’s a bit of a hobby.”
So it really is all horses for Adrie De Vries. But when you have such an affinity with them, that’s hardly surprising.