The UAE racing season is picking up pace and although these are still early days, it looks like we are in for another competitive year’s action on the flat.

All the five racecourses in the country, including the tracks at Meydan, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Al Ain, have hosted meetings, have generated some interesting results.

While Meydan and Jebel Ali will remain the core venues for thoroughbred action Purebred Arabians have been monopolising the spotlight at the UAE’s other three racecourses.

Gulf News, a long-timer partner of the Dubai Racing Club and Emirates Racing Authority, were once again the sponsors of an exciting seven-race card at Meydan’s second meeting of the season, last Thursday.

The newspaper has been an honoured sponsor of the $2 million Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen since the race’s inception in 1996 and remain one of horse-racing’s biggest patrons.

It is a promotional activity that both Dubai racing and the Gulf News have found beneficial to each other. It is not only a marketing tool but a good sponsorship partnership can often generate more excitement.

There was certainly plenty of excitement in the air at Meydan as the venue’s high intensity spotlights lit up the track for a seven-race card which was highlighted by a feature event that had attracted one of the most promising horses from last season, Polar River.

All eyes were on the fine-looking three-year-old filly who had posted four successive wins on the dirt track last term before she narrowly failed to win the coveted UAE Derby, only losing out by three quarters of a length after being held up in traffic for most of the race.

However, there is always a question mark on how fit is a horse, from one season to another, given the fact that the hot summer months in the UAE greatly interrupt it’s off-season training and preparation for next.

Despite this, some horses perform well in the early part while others need a little more time to gain full fitness and form. Sadly, Polar River fitted into the rational of the second set and did not fulfil her potential. She was well and truly beaten and it remains to be seen how much she could have learnt ore benefited from her first run, if she were to replicate her strong showing of the last year.

That’s racing, and we always have to give horses the benefit of the doubt. They are not machines after all and from time to time need a little more time to find their feet.

We hope she can come back stronger in her next run.