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Not madly impressed with Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s approach to industrial relations as revealed by his stated reasons for taking his horses away from Luca Cumani last year.
“When I tell a trainer something he has to listen,”
and
“I am military. If I give someone an order he has to take my order. We do it like this. I’m not going to listen to a trainer giving me an order. ‘If I tell you that you have to run in this race, you have to run.’
“I won’t take excuses.”
Don’t suppose Mark Prescott was high on the list for taking over the horses at any stage then.
Eventually something was going to come out re Luca losing the horses!!
The owner sounds like trouble to me!! It is a shame that Luca showed tremendous patience as always with his horses and Varian is reaping the benefits but by the sound of it for how long?
Unless of course he is a yes man and does exactly what the sheikh says!!
Very easy to poke fun at the Sheikh but when you invest millions I suspect you would want to see (much) better results than Cumani produced.
I presume there was dialogue between the two when Cumani accepted the horses so the trainer should have had a pretty good idea what was expected.
Well in fairness to Mr Mohammed it’s not too much to ask for a trainer to be able to get a horse fit to run. That’s what they are paid to do. If i were an owner I wouldn’t take too kindly to a trainer telling me that he couldn’t do his job.
You want instant results or class horses winning big races when they are four and five years old onwards??
I know which I would prefer!!
And I will say again Varian is reaping the rewards of Luca Cumani’s patience and know how!!
Sounds like an awful guy. Hails from a culture that subjugates women and puts people like him on a pedestal.
Nevertheless some of the points raised are similar to what I was asking in my thread about whether or not the role of the racehorse trainer is overrated.
If a trainer can’t do a simple job like getting his horses fit, then you wonder what is the point of them at all.
Sounds like an awful guy. Hails from a culture that subjugates women and puts people like him on a pedestal.
Nevertheless some of the points raised are similar to what I was asking in my thread about whether or not the role of the racehorse trainer is overrated.
If a trainer can’t do a simple job like getting his horses fit, then you wonder what is the point of them at all.
Exactly my view. Utterly odious man by the sound of it, but they are his horses.
Mike
Some very harsh comments here. I think this all reflects badly on Cumani. Roger Varian is young, eager to impress and willing to take instructions from the man who pays the bills – full credit to him for making it work.
It’s no surprise to see that sort of servile relationship working well. In contrast, the quietly arrogant curmudgeon Cumani was always likely to clash with a hands-on owner like Sheikh Obaid. Perhaps it will be a wake-up call for the Italian, who is in danger of becoming irrelevant if he doesn’t adapt to the new world of racing.
Perhaps he’d prefer becoming ‘irrelevant’ than catering for the likes of Koukash and Obaid.
Some very harsh comments here. I think this all reflects badly on Cumani. Roger Varian is young, eager to impress and willing to take instructions from the man who pays the bills – full credit to him for making it work.
My car mechanic is young and eager to impress but I tend to let him do what he thinks is best for my car.
If the Obaid wants to train his horses he should take out a permit.
Some very harsh comments here. I think this all reflects badly on Cumani. Roger Varian is young, eager to impress and willing to take instructions from the man who pays the bills – full credit to him for making it work.
My car mechanic is young and eager to impress but I tend to let him do what he thinks is best for my car.
If the Obaid wants to train his horses he should take out a permit.
If you want your car ready for Monday and the mechanic thinks it’s better to leave the job to the Friday, then do you just accept it and walk to work for four days then Joe?
He who pays the Piper calls the tune I would say.
Life is like an excrement sandwich, the more bread you want, the more S**t you have to eat from the ones paying for your services.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Everyone has their own take, but it seems logical to me that if you’re paying for someone’s services then you ought to be guided by their advice.
I suppose there is a chance that Obaid knows a lot about the training and placing of horses and that he just wants someone to get them fit for him. If so, that’s fine. And fair play to Varian for accepting on which side his bread is buttered. By implication, he is indeed a lackey so far as Obaid is concerned, though I’d criticise no one for quietly taking the money rather than throwing a hissy fit. Such a down to earth attitude suggests Varian will not be too put out when Obaid moves his horses once again.
I’m sure keeping owners happy is at the top of the list of most trainer’s difficulties. All owners surely have their own opinions (especially when things aren’t going well) and, at best, it’s a case of managing owners’ expectations most of the time.
In this case Cumani trained for Obaid for a long time so must have had an idea how to manage this character. Something obviously brought things to a head to end such a long association. A good horse will always test things, ask any of the Aga Khan’s or Wildenstein’s former trainers.
Varian has done a blinding job with Postponed though.
Personally I think the reflects badly on Cumani statement is wrong.
What we have here is a situation where one trainer (Varian) is willing to put up with the foibles of Obaid whereas another trainer (Cumani) wasn’t.
This is a man who has trained a Derby winner for said owner and in my opinion is only second to Michael Stoute in being patient and allowing and indeed nurturing a racehorse to its FULL potential. This is at least the second time that Cumani has stood up for his principles ( Sheikh Mo comes to mind) and I have total respect for the manner in which he has conducted himself when this happened and since!!Admittedly some on here will say I am biased towards Cumani but surely his record with older horses and his nurturing of younger talent much count for something with most if not the truculent Obaid!!
Surely it is Cumani who was ‘truculent’ though, Raymo? There is no reason why owners should be passive in the training of their horses. If this is the traditional hierarchy, that does not mean it is optimal.
Obaid has never made a high-profile error when imposing his wishes on a trainer, perhaps with the exception of sticking with Cumani so long despite the Italian’s steady decline in results. Not enough is being made of Obaid’s incredibly gutsy unilateral decision to employ the classy King Bolete as a pacemaker in the International. Many would shy away from possibly ruining a classy potential Group horse, but it proved a masterstroke as the horse hung tough for a long way and set up Postponed’s win. A brave and inspired decision for the greater good.
Trainers (especially jaded old-schoolers like Cumani) are often wrong – nobody is immune to oversights or complacency. It must be very frustrating for less assertive owners who surrender control and see their horse messed around by underracing, overracing or poor placement. No matter how impressive a trainer’s record or how obscure the owner’s credentials are, no trainer should be so arrogant as to expect total control over someone’s very expensive racehorse. One thing we know for sure about Sheikh Obaid is that he is a very blunt and direct person. If he wants something, he will not be misunderstood. We can safely assume Cumani understood the exact nature of his working relationship with Sheikh Obaid before it began. It seems that he failed to keep to the agreement and he was justifiably dismissed.
I think Sheikh Obaid deserves much better than the treatment he is getting from the racing public. You’d think he was Oliver Carter and Postponed was Venn Ottery from some reactions in print and on social media.
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