“You are fast, you are smart, you are incredible."
This was a mantra I’ve quietly repeated to Sibelius for what felt like the 100th time as we walked up to the saddling paddock for the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1).
“You are fast, you are smart, you are incredible, you will win,” my quiet chant changed and Sibelius throws me a cheeky look around the edge of his blinkers—as he so often does—almost to say, “Duh, of course we will win.”
We reached the daylight of the Saddling Paddock just as the sun rays started to shift towards golden evening light. The words of Sibelius’s groom and Jeremiah (Jerry) O’Dwyer Racing’s foreman, Ricardo, echo in my mind, “Chelsie, you can’t be nervous. You must be calm for him so he stays relaxed.” As quiet as Sibelius seems, he is very sensitive and in-tune with his people. I will not disappoint Ricardo by accidentally getting nervous, “You are fast. You are smart. You are incredible. You will win,” I repeat while we walk.
Our last moments of solidarity seemed to last an eternity as we marched around the colosseum that made up the saddling paddock of Meydan Racecourse. Dubai’s racing practices are stylized after the European racing traditions and saddling Sibelius is different from what I am used to in the States. Jerry went to fetch the tack and there is no jockey valet to work the offside, so I did the valet's typical job instead.
Sibelius’s owners, Delia Nash, Jun Park, and their connections looked on excitedly. After he was saddled and stretched, I took Sibelius back and we continue our march. Suddenly, the saddling paddock swelled with people, cameramen, and reporters. The air was thick with anticipation.
Sibelius and I take it all in together as we follow the path to the track—the crowds, the beauty of the grandstands, and the mere magnitude of the moment. Any nerves I am stifling are gone. In these moments, all I can feel is pride. Our small stable from south Florida is representing the United States on the world stage. We are running in the Golden Shaheen on Dubai World Cup day and we owe it all to Sibelius, a little chestnut gelding with a huge heart.
Finally, Jerry gives jockey Ryan Moore a leg up and we head to the track. I hand Sibelius and Moore off to the pony and watch him cross the turf course as they make their way to the dirt track. I feel lost without my friend as I walk off the turf with the rest of the race day handlers. I look up at Meydan’s massive grandstand and burst into tears, overcome with emotion. No matter what happens, we made it all the way to the other side of the world together; a small group of people who believed in a horse.
Other grooms start asking me if I'm alright. Robert, one of Bob Baffert’s grooms that shares the barn with us, answers for me: “She’s okay, it's her first time here,” while the group nods in understanding.
Meydan is unlike any other racecourse in the world. The turf is the outer track and the dirt is the inner track. Watching the screens, I feel like I am in a dream. I’m not used to the race unfolding so far away. The next minute and 10 seconds are the longest six-furlong race of my life.
The race goes off and Sibelius doesn’t break as quickly as he has in his last few races. To my horror, he gets shuffled back to mid-pack, far from his customary frontrunning position. Coming from behind, through traffic, historically has not been his running style and for a moment I want to crawl into a hole.
Ryan was riding hard, and suddenly Sibelius starts to make up ground with every stride. I start screaming as if he could hear me: "Go! Go! Go! You can do it! Get up there!” The seconds ticked by and the wire loomed closer.
Stuck behind a wall of horses, a narrow opening on the rail opens up just enough and Sibelius streams through it. As he passes Gunite and Hopkins , last year's winner Switzerland comes from the clouds, closing down the center of the track. They hit the wire in unison. I’m not sure who got the nose in front from where I'm standing; I’m just trying to get the air back in my lungs.
“Your horse won,” Robert said.
I am in shock, the tears cascading down yet again.
I stood and wait for my friend in the middle of the track as he saunters towards me, and the photographers/media line up at attention waiting for their hero to come closer. Still crying, and having trouble focusing, I connect with Sibelius and Ryan. When Ryan and I have a quiet moment away from the crowd he says, “He was so brave.” As we walk closer to the parade of media, photographers begin encouraging me to smile.
Through the lights, the crowd, the noise, “my” horse is proudly standing with me and the rest of his people in the winner's enclosure, quiet and kind as he always is through the madness of these moments.
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Everything about our trip to Dubai was charmed as if it was written before the story ever unfolded. Every step of the journey was easy, it felt like all we had to do was show up. The team behind the Dubai Racing Club took care of all the details of travel for the horse, people, and accommodations, and no detail was left spared.
In the Dubai World Cup quarantine stabling area, we shared a barn with other American teams and we became a close-knit unit during the duration of the trip; everyone lent a helping hand to each other even though half our barn was running in the Golden Shaheen. We were only allowed to train the horses in certain time slots and the rumors are true—it is actually a 30-minute walk from quarantine barns to the Meydan oval and another long 30-minute walk home.
It has been said that Sibelius was the most photographed horse in Dubai this year; dubbed the “Media Darling” early on and later a social media star. He caught a lot of that attention during morning training. He has a daily tradition, no matter what track he is at, of standing at the gap for a few minutes to take in his surroundings before he trains.
Winning the race was incredible, but so was meeting peers from around the world and touring Dubai. After the race, I received hundreds of messages of congratulations and stories of people saying they were cheering for him to win. It felt like the entire world helped propel him toward the wire that day in those last moments.
As I write this, Sibelius is on an airplane back to the States. My plane will take off shortly behind him, feeling ready to take on our next great adventure.
Chelsie Raabe is Jerry O’Dwyer’s current assistant trainer. She is a professional of all horse sports having ridden Breeders' Cup runners, Grand Prix show jumpers, and dressage horses as well as elite event horses. She is passionate about the racing industry as well as Thoroughbred aftercare. In her free time, she works as a freelance photographer for Coglianese Photos and also has a small social media development company. Her hectic schedule is managed by her corgis, Max and Blueberry.
