Dubai: When a downpour forced the second running of the Dubai World Cup in 1977 to be shifted, apart from the connections who were taken by surprise, there were some fans and tour groups whose spirits were dampened.
One such group from Australia, while waiting till the early hours of the next morning, decided to form a syndicate. That was how the No Big Deal Syndicate was born and nine years later, the group is the proud owner of a runner on Dubai World Cup night.
Bryan Martin, a popular commentator from Australia, was part of that group and he recalled, at yesterday's Breakfast with the Stars, the night the syndicate was formed. "We were here when Cigar won in 1996 and we came back with a big group of Australians, about 36, in 1997 and that was the year the meeting was washed out. Like many of the other Australians, we were sitting late at the club-house when our group was formed the No Big Deal Syndicate.
"We decided there and then in the early hours of the morning that we would get some horses and race some horses," Martin said.
"My good friend in Australia [David] Hayes put a couple of horses together for us on a lease basis and that's how the new syndicate started. It's been a wonderful journey for us and it's great to come back to the place where the syndicate was formed," Martin said.
Fields of Omagh runs for the syndicate in the the $5,000,000 Dubai Duty Free (Gr 1) and the owners' group may return home with more than just the winner's purse in the event. After winning the first leg, the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1) on March 4 at the Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne, Fields of Omagh races for a $1,000,000 bonus in the Dubai Duty Free, making a possible $4,000,000 pay day for the No Big Deal Syndicate.
