Fellowes ‘shocked’ by cancellation of Dubai meet RACING

CHARLIE FELLOWES has admitted to being frustrated by the timing of the cancellation of Saturday’s Dubai World Cup meeting.

The Newmarket-based trainer had been looking forward to saddling his globe-trotting stable star Prince Of Arran in the Dubai Gold Cup on the undercard at Meydan, following his fine effort to finish third in Saudi Arabia last month.

However, it was announced on Sunday the fixture would not take place due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was a bit of a shock. Obviously we’ve been keeping a very close eye on what’s going on, not just in England but globally,” said Fellowes.

“All the way along we’ve never had any inkling that it might get cancelled. There was a brief moment of panic last week when they closed the borders to Dubai, but the line was that racing was still going to go ahead.”

While sympathetic to the organisers of the high-profile event, Fellowes found himself in a difficult situation, with both Prince Of Arran and his groom having already made the trip to the UAE.

He added: “We managed to get Prince Of Arran and his groom out there and everything seemed fine – and then out of the blue we were told yesterday [Sunday] that it was cancelled.

“I don’t have a problem with them cancelling it at all – they’ve got to do what’s right for Dubai and the people of Dubai.“But what I felt was frustrating was that yesterday afternoon I get a panic call from the lass who went out with the horse saying, ‘there are no flights back to England, I’m going to get stuck out here for a couple of months, what on earth am I going to do?’.

“That’s on my head – it was my decision to send her over there, after taking advice from other people, and I felt very, very guilty. There was a moment where I thought she was going to get stranded out there.

“As it happens, I’ve managed to get her on a flight from Abu Dhabi and she’s now on her way home, which was my number one concern.”