De Mieulle reflects on a big season, before focusing on the next

De Mieulle reflects on a big season, before focusing on the next

April 1, earlier this year, trainer Alban de Mieulle was marginally ahead of the competition in the trainers’ championship, and it was the last of the big racing days – Qatar Gold Sword and Trophy Day – at Al Rayyan Park. In the card-opener, an Arabian maiden race, his hopes were on Umm Qarn’s Al Arabie, “a good filly for me, but unfortunately she didn’t prove herself at the start” as De Mieulle reminisces. “A lot of quality in the morning, but does not show much in the afternoons,” he adds. But that day, the chestnut filly pulls a fast one out of the bag and wins over seven furlongs by more than three lengths. Next up, in the local Thoroughbreds run, the Frenchman has another Umm Qarn entrant, Equinoxe. The colt has a few wins under the belt but has had to be put in blinkers every race. And before this one, he hasn’t been jumping well out of the gates.