Fallbrook, CA (the avocado capital of the world – see picture for details) is where it all begins. After a summer of truly “takin’ it easy,” it is time to get this show on the road!
I leave on Saturday (August 11th) and arrive in Dublin on Sunday. Training then commences on Monday. I am grateful that I will have an extra day to deal with any travel issues, being that the only excursion I have made out of the country during the first 22 years of my life has been to Mexico!
My bags are packed, my passport is in a safe place, and my currency has been exchanged. I guess all that lies ahead of me now are two fantastic years of learning, traveling and absorbing. There are so many people who have played a role in getting me to this point, so to each of you, I hope to prove a worthwhile investment!
Off to enjoy about 40 more hours of Southern California sunshine! More soon…
Hello all! I have arrived safe and sound in Ireland! The travels over went smoothly and everyone has settled in quite quickly! The entire group gets along extremely well, and as you may imagine, there are many interesting conversations to be had when combining so many different cultures!
Our first few days have been relatively easy going. So far, just lots of introduction information and we are currently taking a three day First Aid course. Today (Saturday) is a rest day and tomorrow we are going to the races at Leopardstown. It should be fantastic!
We are divided amongst three houses, all of which are very nice and close to Kildangan Stud, which is where our training and work takes place. We will be based here through mid-October and then head over to Newmarket through mid-December. We have officially been geared up with our bicycles, laptops and loads of Darley Flying Start polo shirts and jackets and ready to get started!
Next week we begin a physiology and anatomy course that is conducted through the University College Dublin as well as a communications course. The amount of quality information that we will be absorbing over the course of the next two years is astounding!
That wraps it up for now! More soon...
Hello again! Three weeks in and we have successfully completed a First Aid course, a Communications course, and an IT course focused on Word and Excel. We began some work with horses this week and had an introduction lecture on pedigrees as well. Only covering the basic practical horse skills at this point, but we will continue to build on those over the course of the next year and a half or so. If all goes well, the practical skills will culminate in a passing NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) score. This particular NVQ assessment is put on by the British Racing School and has an emphasis in the Thoroughbred breeding industry. Although many of us have spent some time around horses and some of the tasks seem repetitive, we are happy to be doing any type of "horsey" work, just so long as we have some dirt under our fingernails at the end of the day! Plus, it is always great to learn the different ways that people complete seemingly routine tasks.
We will be driving up to Dublin to attend University College Dublin for the third day of our Anatomy and Physiology course tomorrow. Sunday The Curragh will be added to the list of racecourses that we have visited in Ireland (which also includes Leopardstown and Dundalk) to this point. We are busy, but busy with one amazing thing after another! Monday will be the beginning to another aspect to the course, as we have all been assigned to stable yards that we will be working in during the morning hours. Those assignments will be in place between now and October. I think that we are all excited about the prospect of having both hands-on and lecture facets to our daily routine.
Last night we had quite a cultural experience. Clodagh (course manager) treated us all to a concert that was held at a nightclub in Naas. The band was called "The Blizzards," they are apparently somewhat local. Quite good! I think it is suitable to say that a good time was had by all!
So, I think that gives a pretty well-rounded update to this point in time! Things will continue to get more and more interesting as time progresses I'm sure!
Hope this finds you all well!!!
Hello all! Wow, it has been a while and loads of things have happened, so I will do my best to give you the short-ish version!
Since the last time I updated we attended the Champion Stakes at Leopardstown (we all spent a day in a private suite upstairs being "those people" in the Kildangan Stud box!) the Goffs Million, Irish St. Leger, and the National Stakes (go New Approach!). That was a rough week of horseracing at the Curragh, I tell you what!
Visits have included the Irish National Stud, the John Oxx racing stable and Coolmore (yes, we got to meet Sadler's Wells and some of his impressive sons!) A few of the presenters that we have been visited by were Harry Sweeny who lectured on the Japanese racing industry (and brought sushi and Japanese beer!), Brian Kavanagh and Michael O'Rourke on behalf of Horse Racing Ireland and Michael O'Hagan on behalf of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. We are so fortunate that each of the lecturers spends time to visit with us, as they all play key roles at the top of the game.
More recently we spent a number of days at the Goffs Millions Yearling Sale that is held just down the highway. Each of us were assigned to a particular bloodstock agent to spend the weekend before the sale inspecting yearlings. Once the sale began on Monday many of us were dispatched to watch the sale and do some small tasks while others were kept busy playing bloodstock agent throughout the entire week. I think it is fair to say that by the end of the week most of us had looked at more yearlings than we thought was possible and had collected a number of contacts and memories that will not soon be forgotten. During Goffs week we were also fortunate enough to be invited to dinner with Joe Osborne, Clodagh Kavanagh and THE John Ferguson. Wow! As we arrived in the restaurant he greeted each of us by name and knew details from all of our backgrounds. A wonderful dinner was had by all, and MANY good stories were shared. Another experience that the Darley Flying Starters will not soon forget.
MOST recently we all hopped on an Aer Lingus flight at Dublin airport at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and headed to a little place called Paris…we had been waiting for the weekend to arrive for what seemed like ages! As soon as we arrived we all went to our hotels and settled in for what would be a very memorable weekend! Some went to the races, while others stayed in the city to do some sightseeing. I was in the second group. A few of us took a boat tour in which we were able to see the Statue of Liberty (mini version), the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Louvre and much more! What a great way to see the sights if you only have a few hours. After that short tour we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with Andy (the New Zealander), Kyle and Liam to watch the France/New Zealand rugby game. If only everyone could have a sporting event experience such as the one I had that night! In a big white tent set up at the base of the Eiffel Tower (silhouetted in lights against the night sky) a small group of us watched New Zealand tragically (Kiwi bias) lose their chance at the Rugby World Cup title, only to try again in another four years.
Sunday we all shook out of bed in time to grab a bite, pack our bags and head to Longchamp! It was time for what we'd all been waiting for, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe! I must say that Longchamp is the most beautiful racecourse that I have ever seen. Unbelievable. The crowds were huge, the people were fancy, the weather was perfect and the horses were running. Couldn't have asked for a better day…well, from a Darley bias it may have been nice to see Authorized run a bit better, but many are Dylan Thomas fans and it was spectacular to see him win! (On a positive note for the home team, Rio De La Plata won the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and we got to see the famous Frankie Detorri flying dismount!) After experiencing what many would call the best day in European racing, we all shuffled off to the airport and after a bit of adventure (broken down minibus taxi which led to 12 of us being piled into a ten passenger minibus) we finally made it back to Dublin and were home in bed by some hour that classified it as Monday morning.
The next few weeks find us wrapping up with our work in the yards breaking yearlings (hardly got to get into that, but I will include pics), studying up for our Anatomy and Physiology final (next Monday) and preparing for our presentations that we will be sharing at the Darley Flying Start Conference in a couple of weeks. We are heading off to Newmarket on Oct. 29th, so the next update will most likely be from there.
So, that was not at all short-ish, but there have been so many amazing things, I had to try to squeeze them in! I hope that this long update finds you all well and enjoying October wherever you are!!!
Cheers!
Jordyn
Hello all! The Darley Flying Start crew arrived in Newmarket (England) on Oct. 29th and we have nearly completed our first full week. The flight over here was interesting enough, as we departed at 6:25 in the morning from Dublin airport. The logistics of getting 12 people with LOADS of stuff on a plane that early in the morning are a bit daunting. Most of us ended up paying a pretty penny in excess baggage charges and were found sprinting down to the gate, just making it in time. That's one way to get the heart rate up that early in the morning!
Our accommodations here are absolutely amazing. When we arrived and were shown in and all of us thought we had died and gone to heaven! Not that the houses in Ireland were bad by any means; however, we had about four channels and a puny TV in Ireland, and we have a huge plasma TV here. The living room is equipped with new leather couches and the kitchen is stocked as well. Another bonus, we have Internet in the houses! No complaints, that's for sure. In the evenings we all just kind of sit around in wonder…
During our first week we did loads of tours, including one around Dalham Hall Stud (where we are staying), Seven Springs (one of the yearling breaking yards), Michael Jarvis' training yard, the Jockey Club Rooms, and the Rowley Mile. We also had a lecture from James Willoughby and spent a day in London on Friday. The non-Americans had to get some Visa things sorted for our time in Kentucky, so we all took the train in and while they did their business, the Americans did some sightseeing and such. We all met up in a pub later on that night and finally caught the last train home at 9:15 at night. It was a great, but full day!
Yesterday (Saturday) we headed to see some actual races at The Rowley Mile. It is an absolutely beautiful racecourse and the crowd was pretty good considering the time of the year. The track is quite new and pristine; a good time was had by all. Next week we will have various lectures and visits. The following week we begin rotations between the British Racing School, Hamilton Hill (a pre-training yard in which we'll work with the yearlings being broken) and the various departments in the Dalham Hall office. The time at Hamilton Hill will be neat as some of the yearlings that we had been working with in Ireland have travelled over as well. I have a feeling that this leg is going to fly and we'll be home for the holidays before we know it.
I hope that this finds you all well!
Hello All! It has been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, really no excuse except for the fact that…well, no excuse at all! For the next ten days I will be spending the hours of 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. on foal watch at Gainsborough Farm, so there is plenty of time to catch up. So far I have experienced three foalings, and despite the new nocturnal lifestyle, it has been quite an experience!
Now to catch up on where the Flying Starters have been in the last few months. We finished up in Newmarket, England around December 15th and the majority of us headed home for the holidays. Training commenced in Lexington, Kentucky on January 2nd, so quite a few of us celebrated our New Years' Eve Kentucky-style. During our first week here we spent several days at the Keeneland January Sale with different members of the nominations team from Jonabell. The sale was great; however, a few of us ended up with a pretty awful flu that kept us in bed for several days.
After the sale (and the flu) had passed, we all spent two weeks taking a course from Mitch Taylor and his crew from the Kentucky Horseshoeing School (KHS). I must say that those two weeks were amongst the most valuable that we have spent on the course to this point. Mitch has the ability to illustrate the dynamics and importance of the horses' hoof and proper hoof care unlike anybody I have ever met. We had both classroom lectures and practical training. The practical training involved us first learning to trim the legs of cadavers and by the end of the two weeks we were all capable of giving horses simple "pasture trims" relatively well.
In order to solidify the hoof care knowledge gained at KHS the twelve of us headed up to Cincinnati to attend the International Hoof Care Summit during the end of last week. While there we listened to hoof care professionals from around the world discuss timely and interesting topics that are prominent in the farrier industry…plus, we got to see Cincinnati!
This week started our rotations. Over the course of the next few months we will be spending time doing foal watch, a month with the mares at Gainsborough, working at Keeneland with Darley trainer Johnny Burke, shadowing a few vets from Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, working with the Darley stallion crew, spending time in the Darley offices and finally working with the yearlings. Needless to say, there are quite a few opportunities to be had! Along with that we are taking an equine nutrition course at the University of Kentucky, receiving lectures from industry leaders and getting to meet all of the big players in Lexington (ex. Storm Cat).
Our accommodations in Lexington are the best yet. We are split up amongst five different apartments that are fully furnished. The time here promises to be dense in learning and fun, with loads of memories to be made. I promise to be a bit better about catching up...more soon!
Hello everyone! Happy Spring to you! While it may have been Spring for a while where you are, it is just now starting to stay consistently Spring-y here in Lexington. The long, cold, fairly miserable Winter here really made a born-and-raised Southern California girl appreciate the sunshine!
Time here in Lexington has been flying by at a nice clip! We finished our rounds of rotations last week. As mentioned in previous e-mails, we all spent time with a trainer at the racetrack, two weeks on foal watch (night watch), a month out at the farm with the mares and foals, two weeks at Hagyard Equine Medical Clinic, a week with the yearlings and so on. I would have to say that I learned the most during the month out at Gainsborough Farm with the mares and foals. During my time out there I spent the mornings with the management and veterinarians monitoring each mare and their cycles. It is critical that they get the mares to the breeding shed on exactly the right day, before they ovulate, or else they have to wait another 15 days before they come back "in." Time is of the essence, and those 15 days add up pretty quickly! Who would've known that getting mares pregnant would be such a science? The team out at Gainsborough is unbelievable, and they made very early and long mornings incredibly enjoyable. I think that we all gained an appreciation for what they do, as they are working 24/7 during foaling and breeding season (Jan-June), and maintain wonderful attitudes through it all!
During the past few months we have also been privileged to spend some time out at the local racetrack, Keeneland. The racetrack is world-class and it is about five minutes down the road from our apartments. We were able to shoot out to the races after lectures and were also out there most weekends, catching some pretty phenomenal races such as the Blue Grass Stakes, a race for 3 year-olds that is commonly used as a preparation race for the Kentucky Derby. While our time at Keeneland was mostly set aside for relaxation and mingling, we also had a few serious tasks to accomplish. Each of us spent one full day with the racing officials and stewards, seeing the activities that they carry out on a daily basis. We started the morning in the racing office, taking entries and watching the post-position draws for the following day of racing. After the morning we followed the paddock judges and identifier out into the paddock to check that each of the horses were wearing their proper equipment and got to the racetrack on time. We also got to visit the stewards up in the stewards box on the top of the grandstand and watched the official "starter" load the horses in the gate and send them on their way....it was quite a day!
I have only described a few things that we have been up to, but if I continue I will most likely go on for ages! We are looking forward to the coming weeks, as they hold the promise of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, a week-long stewards accreditation course and the wrap-up of our Nutrition class at the University of Kentucky. Most of us have heard where we will be doing our six-week long mini internships that begin after Memorial Day weekend and go through the 4th of July. I will be heading to New Jersey to work at the Thoroughbred Daily News (a major daily publication in the Thoroughbred industry) and look forward to learning about an entirely new sector of this industry.
On one more fun note, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is going on at the Kentucky Horse Park this week. I was able to sneak out yesterday and see the world-class horses and riders complete the cross-country leg of the three-days (the first day is dressage, the second is cross-country and the third is stadium jumping). The fences and the course are unbelievable!
I will keep you up to date on any new developments. For now, I hope that this finds you all well.
Hello from New Jersey! I know, you all must be thinking, this can't be possible! She can't be somewhere else…again! But, "she" is….
I am currently spending six weeks in the beautiful state of New Jersey working with the Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN), a daily online newsletter that is hugely popular with people throughout the industry. I have been here since the end of May and cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by.
When I am at "work" I am busy keeping up with several little projects that I have been assigned and also working with the editorial crew that is responsible for producing the publication on a daily basis. I had NO idea how much work it is to produce a daily newsletter, but they are like a well-oiled machine and make it look fairly effortless.
It certainly is not all work. During my first weeks here I was able to attend races at Monmouth Park, see Big Brown work up at Belmont Park, attend a Belmont Stakes press lunch at the ESPN Zone in NYC, see "South Pacific" on Broadway and I even had time to hit the beach! It was very exciting to be involved in this aspect of the industry during Big Brown's Triple Crown campaign, even though, once again out hopes were blown out of the water.
I am living with one of the kindest, most gracious families I have ever met, Vicki and John Forbes. Vicki is the Director of Customer Services at the TDN and her husband is a trainer, who was responsible for the successful career of Tale of the Cat. From my first night here they have made me feel like family, and I must say, it may be a little bit tough to leave.
When my six weeks here are over (on the 4th of July), I will drive back to Lexington for the final two weeks of the USA portion of Darley Flying Start. When we arrived in January it seemed as though seven months was an eternity. Come to find, it is not! I guess that it was just the CA-girl in me wishing for a more moderate winter. I hope that this finds you all well!
Hello All! It has been a while, hasn't it??? Sorry about that, but I am glad to report that I have officially settled into life in Aberdeen, Australia quite well.
We arrived about seven weeks ago and have been going fairly non-stop since. Our rotations are much the same as in Kentucky, the Thoroughbred breeding season in AUS is the opposite of that in the US (the whole S. Hemisphere thing get stuff pretty twisted up!) so we are doing a lot of work with foals, mares, and stallions. We also conducted a four week equine nursing course in the afternoons and have had a number of great lectures from the Darley Australia management and other people from the industry.
The highlight thus far has been the week we just spent in Sydney. The main focus of going down there was to attend a three day leadership course at the University of Sydney, but it was a lot more than that. We spent Saturday at the races at Rosehill racecourse, which was incredible. Sunday we all ventured over to Bondi Beach and experienced some of the intense Aussie sun that we have been hearing about...I always thought this was a joke, but they seriously have less ozone than other parts of the world. Monday and Tuesday we went on several visits which included meeting different trainers, racehorse syndicates (people who put together racehorse ownership groups), and industry bodies in the Sydney area. The leadership course on Wed, Thurs, and Fri. was excellent and quite a bit of leadership theory practical knowledge was imparted upon us. We made it back to Aberdeen after that weekend and have now settled back into small town/stud farm life. The week was incredibly valuable as far as linking a lot of different parts of the industry together for us...plus, we got to see a lot of great sights.
As for the next couple of months, we will be equally as busy. Normal rotations continue for another three weeks and then we head down to Melbourne to experience the Melbourne Cup, "The race that stops the Nation." Our week in Melbourne will be much like that in Sydney, getting to know all of the local racing organizations and personalities. It should be fairly unforgettable. After that we will all head off on our individual month-long internships. This time I will be heading to New Zealand to work for a company called New Zealand Bloodstock. I will be living near the city of Auckland and am really looking forward to the opportunity to live somewhere new, yet again.
I will be in touch again with another update before we head home in December, and I hope to have some more pictures by then. For now, here are just a few shots of the farm, Bondi Beach, and of the Sydney skyline.
I hope that this finds you all well.
First and foremost, Happy Holidays! Sorry it has been a while…but here is an update to bring you up to speed on where I have been and how things have been going. Here goes…
At the end of October we finished our farm rotations at the Darley studs in New South Wales. We then spent a week touring all of the magnificent farms in the Hunter Valley that we had not yet seen. These included farms that weren't necessarily your usual stud farms. One of them was an old cattle station called Belltrees. Belltrees was and still is a true working cattle farm and has been run by the same family for several generations. We were treated to a tour of the farm, a roast beef lunch (pretty fresh), and a small tutorial on the evaluation of cattle breed and body condition. It was hot and dusty, there were flies everywhere…and it was perfect! It felt as though we had stepped back in time to have a brief glimpse at what the historic Aussie's went through in the development of this great country.
The second somewhat unexpected farm visit was to Ellerston, the farm of former media mogul Kerry Packer. The farm is primarily there to serve as training and breeding grounds for the families' polo ponies, but they also host polo tournaments and other events. We spent the morning with his reproductive veterinarian, Dr. Alan Simpson, who showed us the ins and outs of artificial insemination and embryo transfers, which we Thoroughbred people do not see a lot of. Not only does the farm house some of the world's best polo ponies and over five different polo fields, but also a golf course designed by Greg Norman himself. No expense was spared in the development of the property, and was it impressive!
After our week of tours we all packed up, hopped on a plane, and made our way to Melbourne for the Spring Racing Carnival. We have been hearing about the Melbourne Cup and the Spring Racing Carnival since we began the course, and it did not disappoint. Australia's racing atmosphere is unparalleled. Not only is it the meeting ground of champion racehorses, but it is a main event on the calendar of most Aussie socialites, even Snoop Dogg made an appearance! The most popular line heard at Flemington Racecourse is, "Oh, you mean there are horses here?" There is so much going on, it would be easy to miss every single race on the card. However, not everyone is there for the "Fashions on the Field" competition, and for those who are interested, the racing is second-to-none. The Melbourne Cup epitomized the entire Carnival, with 80 year-old trainer Bart Cummings taking stealing the Cup for the 12th time from daunting European challengers with his Aussie bred horse, Viewed. What a day!
After a week of some serious race-going, we all packed up again to head to our respective locations for our month-long work placements. I flew to New Zealand to do my placement with the sales company, New Zealand Bloodstock in their marketing department. Days were filled with writing press releases and articles relating to the two-year-old Ready To Run sale that occurred while I was there. When the two-year-old sale was done the focus moved to promoting the yearling sales series that will occur in January. The market in New Zealand is tied in with the Aussie's along with various Asian markets (Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore). During my time with NZB I worked on an array of press releases targeted at buyers coming to the sale from all of those Asian markets. It was an incredible learning experience. I lived in a small town called Cockle Bay, which is about 30 minutes from Auckland. The home that I lived in overlooked the bay and the water was the first thing I saw every morning when I walked out of my door, unbelievable. Of all of the places I have travelled over the past year and half, New Zealand is one place that I believe that everyone should travel to at least once.
So now I am back in New South Wales, AUS until Dec. 20th and then home for Christmas. I will spend time with friends and family back in the States until Jan. 1, when I head off to Dubai. We had our introduction lecture on Dubai yesterday and it sounds as though it is going to be absolutely incredible. I can't wait to get there and be a part of the phenomenon, where each day will present some new fascinating adventures, I am sure.
I hope that this finds everyone well and that you all have a wonderful and happy Holiday Season.
Happy New Year!
It is a little bit early for an extensive update, but given that Dubai is a much anticipated leg of my two-year journey, I just wanted to share my first impressions.
Everything you hear about, all of the articles you read and all of the Matt Lauer specials you watch cannot really do justice to what Dubai is about. First and foremost, the airport is unlike any other you will ever see. Terminal 3 is dedicated strictly to Emirates Airlines, and they have done it right. Driving from the airport to where we are living was unbelievable, seeing all of the gigantic buildings (including the 180-story Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world) in lights is quite a sight.
Upon arrival I was so exhausted that I just collapsed into a heap on my bed without really paying attention to the surrounding areas. The next day I was going to the Mall of the Emirates (the indoor ski slope mall) to do some grocery shopping and I turned the corner from my place to see the Burj al Arab (the sailboat hotel). It is honestly just across the street...like...that is where we are advised to catch taxi's from. Also near by is a place called a Souk, which is a marketplace; usually where you go if you want to work a bargain. This Souk is pretty fancy/touristy and contains very nice restaurants as well as designer shops and a canal from which you can arrive by boat if you are so inclined.
We started our actual training today and did several tours which included Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, the Dubai World Cup quarantine location and the Dubai Racing Club. We start our "rotations" next week. I will be working with the Dubai Racing Club and Emirates Racing Authority for the first five weeks and then a trainer named Erwan Charpy for the following five weeks. I am beginning to get the impression that our time here is going to be incredibly busy and fly by!
I have attached some pictures including the Burj al Arab, the indoor ski slope, the Burj Dubai (you will see, it is the tall building in the photo) and a few other randoms. In the Burj Dubai photo you will notice that the air is not very clear. I was told that when the humidity is high here the moisture in the air captures the dust and makes it appear that way. It looks a bit like Los Angeles on a smoggy day, minus the green tinge.
All my best, Jordyn
Hello! Well, only a couple more of these updates and the entire Darley Flying Start experience will be complete! Unbelievable! As of Thursday, April 2nd, I will tick Dubai off of the itinerary and head back to Europe for the final leg. I must admit, we get a few days of vacation between here and Ireland, so I am going to Venice for a few days! Not too shabby!
Dubai has been everything that I expected and more. The work placements that I completed included the Dubai Racing Club/Emirates Racing Authority and working with a local trainer Erwan Charpy. At the DRC/ERA I was based in the office and observed the overall administration of racing in Dubai as well as the build up to the Dubai World Cup, which took place last Saturday.
The Dubai World Cup is the World’s richest race day, hosting seven races in total, one for Purebred Arabians and six for Thoroughbreds. The six Thoroughbred races are run for purses of US $1,000,000 plus; two for US $5,000,000 and the actual World Cup purse is US $6,000,000. This was the final racing carnival to be held at Dubai’s first world-class track, Nad Al Sheba, as next year marks the opening of the new racecourse at Meydan, which will (amongst other things) be made up of a grandstand that is a kilometer long, it is huge.
I had an absolutely wonderful time working with Erwan Charpy and his team at Green Stables. I found the early mornings to be completely bearable as I was just thrilled to be around horses and people again on a regular basis! It was a great opportunity to see the ins-and-outs of a training stable here in Dubai, as it is so unlike any other training location in the world. For instance, everything pretty much shuts down during the summer, it is simply too hot to train, horses are hand-walked and some swim. Full training doesn’t pick back up until late August. The entire experience was fantastic.
We spent our afternoons for the first couple of months studying several different business modules, which included Human Resources, Finance, IT/Websites and Marketing. Each of those courses helped us begin building our ideas for the final business plan that we have to present in June and also culminated in a final group or individual presentation. It was good to be back in the classroom again having a refresher on those topics.
The highlight of Dubai without a doubt was meeting Sheikh Mohammed. So far every Flying Start group has had the opportunity to meet him for lunch, and we were keeping our fingers crossed. Our wishes came true last week when we spent the day at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) with the Managing Director and Governor. We were given a broad overview of the DIFC as it exists today, where it will be in the coming years and what role it will play in the future of Dubai. Although it is easy to see that the economic downturn is having an impact on Dubai (the cranes aren’t moving as much and the roads aren’t as crowded with buses full of workers), it very encouraging to hear about the plan that Dubai has going forward. It is safe to say, I think they will be around for a while! We also learned about a charity that is called Dubai Cares, which is a charity that has already raised enough money to educate a million primary school children in underprivileged countries around the world. There is so much going on here that we never hear about, it seems as though Sheikh Mohammed’s generosity knows no bounds.
About half way through the day we were all in the meeting with the DIFC Governor, Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman (UCLA grad, lived in La Jolla for a few years…small world!) and suddenly the doors opened... Just like that, there he was! We were all speechless and hardly remembered our own names when he did the rounds and shook our hands. After the introductions we sat and had a general discussion about the Flying Start program, what we have learned and so on. Lunch itself was fantastic, we ate and ate and ate, I am certain that we sampled everything on the menu. By that time we were all a lot more settled and were able to fire questions at him for about an hour. Then…just like that, he up and left. I cannot imagine how busy he is, and the fact that he was willing to spend a few hours with us speaks volumes. The best part was being able to thank him personally for the opportunity that he has provided for us.
All in all, it was a completely surreal day. We all went home virtually speechless and totally impressed. It was a wonderful way to end our experience in Dubai and I am sure that none of us will forget the memories made here any time soon.
I can’t really top all of that, so more soon when we are all settled back into the green and dreary land known as Ireland. We have been spoiled with 90 degree days here…I can’t say I am really looking forward to highs of 60, but that’s ok!
I hope that this finds you all well.
Well folks,
Five more days and it is time to tick Darley Flying Start off the list of ”Life Experiences.” Pretty phenomenal how time flies, isn’t it? It does not feel like all that long ago that I was travelling out to Lexington, KY for my interview...over two years ago! I have come to find that most important experiences in life tend to zip on by no matter how much we try to control them, so what matters the most is that you hang on tight and take as much from them as you can!
After leaving Dubai I headed off to Venice for a few days off with a friend from home. It was a wonderful and refreshing trip, the city is phenomenal! After that mini-vacation, I arrived back in Ireland and met up with the rest of the crew for the final months of the course. The bulk of April was spent in an Entrepreneurship course that was conducted by the business school at University College Dublin and other lectures that pertained to our final project, a business plan.
In May we all split ways again for our final work placement, the majority of the boys were off to Newmarket, England, leaving two of us behind in Ireland and one in France. I spent most of the month working with the marketing department of Horse Racing Ireland, experiencing several aspects of what they do from launching a promotion with one of Ireland’s top jockeys, Johnny Murtagh, to the organization of specialty days at the races and helping design campaigns aimed at drawing tourists into Ireland to experience the racing. It was a great opportunity and it was very interesting time to be involved considering they had recently experienced significant budget cuts due to the fact that they are a largely government funded organization.
After our work placements ended at the end of May we all met up again and travelled to France for a three day industry visit. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour, but it was absolutely wonderful. We took in the sights and sounds of Chantilly racecourse, watched the masters Freddy Head and Andre Fabre do their work on the gallops, toured stud farms in Normandy and enjoyed a lovely seaside dinner with the principals of Arqana Sales Company in Deauville. It was a trip that will not soon be forgotten by any of us.
Needless to say, we were all pretty tired when we got back to Dublin, but it was time for the final push, only one month to go until graduation! The final assignment involved putting together a plan for a business that we could potentially start on our own some day. One can only know how many of us will follow through on our business plans in the future, but the exercise was incredibly educational. The final step of the process is to present the plan in front of a panel of four “potential investors” in order to secure enough financing to get the business started. I have my presentation tomorrow...we will see how it goes!
Graduation occurs in Newmarket, England next Friday (July 10th) so we will fly over there on Thursday and get settled in for the celebration. On the 12th I will head back to CA for a few days of relaxation and packing before hitting the road with mom and making the move over to Lexington, Kentucky where my work with Darley America will begin on the 27th of July.
These past two years have laid an entirely new and unique layer on the foundation for my future. Not only has my knowledge of the Thoroughbred industry increased exponentially, but the knowledge of myself as well. There is really no real way to express the gratitude that we have to Sheikh Mohammed for this opportunity other than to commit ourselves to the progress of the industry that we have a shared passion for. Thank you to everyone for all of the support in the form of emails, letters, visits, phone calls and more. I look forward to seeing you all soon, or to at least sharing the same country code again!
It has been wonderful to share this adventure...on to the next!
I hope that this finds you all well.
Jordyn
PS-I have included a few pictures from Venice and France. The French pictures include the racecourse and training gallops in Chantilly and the view from dinner in Deauville.