Ernst Oertel has eyes set on lofty goals for next season

Dubai: No sooner had the dust settled on the 2012-’13 UAE Racing season than champion trainer Ernst Oertel was setting new goals for his title-winning Al Asayl Stables.

The South African handler, who beat-off top rivals to clinch his maiden UAE crown, is targeting the big races at next year’s Dubai World Cup meeting.

Despite having saddled 34 winners and winning prestigious races like the HH The President’s Cup and UAE Arabian Derby, Oertel is now aiming higher than ever.

He tells Gulf News why...

Gulf News: How much does winning the UAE trainer’s championship mean to you. Was it something you set out to achieve.

Oertel: It means everything and that’s why you come here, you want to have winners and win the championship. That’s your goal and when you achieve your goal it feels pretty good. I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve achieved this year. The whole team has worked hard and I’m so happy for them that we won in the end. It’s as much their victory as it’s mine.

Given the fact that you have both Purebred Arabians and thoroughbreds in the stables, do you adopt different training methods for the two breeds. How much of a challenge is it?

Oertel: It’s not really that much different, it still boils down to the basics of training racehorses. However, with the Arabians we are not so hard on them as opposed to the thoroughbreds who can take a lot more galloping and more work. I think with the Arabians is a lot more about understanding a horse, it’s more in the mind. They can be both easy to train and difficult at the same time, if you know what I mean. On a different note, this year we introduced a treadmill into the training program and that seems to have helped as well, with regards to fitness.

You’ve had such an amazing season, with so many highlights. You’ve had multiple winners, big race winner and seen some of your handicappers do so well. Would it be fair to ask you to pick out a highpoint of the season?

Oertel: It’s hard, very hard. But perhaps I would say Skoop because he came back from quite a serious injury and he did so well to win the Emirates Classic and UAE Arabian Derby. He’s a really good horse and I’m really excited for him for next year. It’s particularly satisfying, especially if a horse comes off an injury and does well. It takes a lot more work than your normal, straightforward horses, which are so much more easy to train.

Being champion obviously means there will be added pressure next season. You have set the bar high, how much higher do you want it to go, will you be setting new goals for the stable.

Oertel: The only thing we want to do is up the quality of the thoroughbreds and our main aim next year is to have winners on World Cup night. That’s going to be our goal and hopefully we can get some good horses to fill the gaps. We will have to find a way to deal with the pressure, but if the horses do well I don’t see that as a problem.

This has been one of the most competitive seasons in a long, long time, with people like Ali Rashid, Musabah Al Mihairi and Satish, who have so much of local experience, very much contenders right up till the finish. So when did you think the championship was within reach, did you ever doubt yourself?

Oertel: You can never be too confident. We just kept the focus and ensured that the horses kept ticking along nicely. I knew that our horses weren’t getting tired and that we still had some fresh stock to be competitive. I think was quite confident for most of the way, but having said that, the least confident I was, was after the last Sharjah meeting where I drew a blank although I thought I should have at least two winners on the day. I was a bit disappointed that day and I thought to myself have we just blown it. But we bounced back in Abu Dhabi where we had three winners and I could breathe a lot better. That’s racing, its full of ups and downs.

What are your training principles?

Oertel: Quite simple actually. I think it’s just about keeping horses healthy and happy. It’s as simple as that. When your horse is happy he performs better.

So you’re saying that horses do have feelings and emotions?

Oertel: Definitely! You can tell if a horse is happy because he runs well, if he’s not you’re not going to see the best of him. It’s not only that, you also need to keep our staff happy as well. A happy yard makes happy horses. And that’s when you get winners.

Now that the season is over, what are your plans for the summer?

Oertel: At the moment we’re busy getting the babies going, just preparing for next year. It’s a bit of a let-down that we have no racing for a while, but we’re keeping ourselves busy with the babies. And we’re obviously repairing and recuperating with others that have had a hard season. So it is never really quiet, even if there is no actually racing taking place. It’s a year-round operation.