If horses could talk, some of them would probably want to say a heartfelt thank you to Debbie Armaly. The self-appointed ‘Racehorse Re-homer’ in the UAE has helped match up several ex-track stars with new owners and has seen many of them thrive in their new occupations.
Take Kilt Rock as an example. Owned by the Emirates Entertainment Racing Club [EERC] syndicate and trained by six-time UAE champion Doug Watson, the gelding was retired in 2017 after seven wins in Dubai. Now living a life of luxury with new owner Cassy Dickson, the 13-year-old has won local eventing and dressage competitions and is something of a pin-up boy for Thoroughbred aftercare in the region.
Armaly, 55, does it purely for the love of the horse. Around 15 horses have passed through her unofficial scheme, which started eight years ago.
“The first horse I rehomed was [three-time winner] Sand Cat, which was a long time ago. I want them to have a nice life after racing, because they give you so much fun and they retire relatively young. We’ve got some that are doing dressage, one that events and some that are just ‘happy hackers’. All the owners who took them on still have them, although a few of the older horses have passed away.
“I was judging a dressage competition and the first two places were both filled by ex-EERC horses – Kilt Rock and Hard Cover. Then at the Spinney’s Cup [one-day event] Kilt Rock would have won had the owner not gone the wrong way. I see lovely pictures of Sand Cat, who’s now in Germany, playing in the snow and still having a fantastic life.”
Armaly is a member of EERC and celebrated a winner last season when Right Flank, in whom she has a small share, won at Jebel Ali. The 5-year-old son of War Front need have no concerns about his post-racing days.
“I got into horseracing through EERC, but I used to ride when I lived in England,” she says, before offering advice to any would-be ex-racehorse owners: It’s not all sunshine and rosettes.
“They need to make sure they’re prepared and that they know what they’re getting into. They need to research the feeding and the care and make sure they have the financial ability to take them back to their home country if and when they leave.”
Dubai’s summer temperatures of upwards of 45C present their own challenges. Even the most enthusiastic of owners might find their riding opportunities are curtailed during July and August. “Stables have to be air-conditioned, with some turnout,” says Armaly. “The average cost here is AED3000-4000 [US$816-1000] per month for livery, plus shoeing and vets’ bills. When you take a horse from the track, all you get is a head collar.”
Some of the latest horses to be rehomed, which include G3 winner Jutland and Meydan winner Lord Tiger, were purchased by their new owners at a horses-in-training sale, although many were embargoed from racing. Sensing an opportunity to step in, Armaly rallied around and got as many potential owners to the sale as she could, despite no opportunity to try the horses beforehand.
“The ones who come from the sale, the new owners haven’t even got on them before,” she explains. “Re-training time varies with every horse. Some owners just put them in the field and let them ‘be a horse’ again, while others have started dressage training and some are long-reigning. The first thing they need to do is to relax, realise they’re not racing anymore, and revert to being in a paddock with other horses to change their mindset.”
The sale purchases have worked out well so far, but Armaly is hopeful of a more formal scheme in the future. The UAE has strict rules on charities, so help from the relevant authorities is key.
“We have lots of people who would like to take horses, but half of them would like to see them and try them beforehand, and this isn’t always possible when they come straight from a racing yard,” she explains. “So if we could have a yard, somewhere that we could start to retrain them and give them a home after they’ve started their basic training, then we would attract a lot more people to take these horses.
“It has to be run properly, so that we can commit financially to them until they can be rehomed.”
She has plans for how such a programme could be funded, although existing owners would need to be complicit. “It would be good if owners could be asked to pay a small percentage – say one percent of any winnings – to go towards such a scheme,” she says.
With Godolphin paving the way through its excellent Lifetime Care scheme in the UK, hopefully a similar programme in the UAE isn’t too far away. For now though, the Emirates’ racehorses have Debbie Armaly and her persuasive powers to thank for their air-conditioned new homes.
This article was first published in Gallop magazine.