Bahrain International Trophy<\/a> that year. <\/p>\nAlthough he did not win, the Kublers must have made the right impression with His Highness, whose drive and ambition as chairman of the Bahrain Turf Club is boundless. No doubt he did his due diligence and decided that they were the right people for the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was amazing when we spent more time talking to Sheikh Isa and his team was just how much our core values overlapped,\u201d said Claire explaining their decision to switch. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur common goals, the care for the team, for their development, the love of the horse, it’s so embedded in the culture. It’s so obvious when you talk to His Highness that he just adores horses, and he just wants his team to be the best.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sat down and went through the whole vision for Bahrain racing. It\u2019s just really exciting to play a part in that and contribute as best that we can and help attract people here and be involved in the excitement of it. This is a long-term project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked to explain Sheikh Isa\u2019s vision, Claire continued: \u201cHow I interpret it, is it’s very thoughtful and it’s very clear. He always brings everyone into the decision-making to ensure that the right visions are put in place. It’s incredibly ambitious.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to compete together among all nations within the Middle East and put together a race programme that improves racing domestically but which slots in nicely with the other jurisdictions; getting international horses that can come over here and compete throughout the winter between all the countries. It makes an awful lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are 33 horses in the yard with six more arriving over the next two weeks. Training is ramping up ahead of the start of the 12 race Turf Series which runs from December to March, and which is growing in profile and quality.<\/p>\n
The Kubler\u2019s approach to training and their backgrounds has set them apart. For a start, at the age of 12 Claire decided she wanted to be in racing as her father had a small yard in the Lake District. But not for her the traditional route.<\/p>\n
Being of a scientific bent, she went to Cambridge University where she read natural sciences specialising in physiology, with her dissertation on muscle cells being published in the esteemed Journal of Physiology. She then trained as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialising in audit and forensics which again played to her strengths.<\/p>\n
Both were deliberate steps towards her grand plan; physiology helping her to understand the animal, accountancy how to run a business. Then it was on to the shop floor and the slog around various yards, including working for John Warren, then the late Queen\u2019s racing manager. <\/p>\n
It was then that she met Dan, a South African, who she describes as having the ultimate creative mind and who was and remains obsessed by sport and the cross fertilisation of ideas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty fortunate to meet someone very like-minded, very ambitious, very open-minded in his thinking, and very creative as well,\u201d said Claire.<\/p>\n
Their approach is from the perspective of the outsider. \u201cYou see different alternatives that might not have been thought of before. Dan does so much research into other sports and what they are doing, whether it’s cycling or rugby, football, Formula One, cricket, he’s a real geek.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is about absorbing information and seeing how we can just get better. Not just for the results, but also for the horses, so you’re doing the best that you can all the time and for your owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what she thinks is their USP, she replied: \u201cBringing in that more analytical and science approach; fully understanding the physiology of your horse and adapting to different demands but also looking at what data there is out there. But not just having that data, it’s the ability to analyse it and see the trends that are relevant. I love doing stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother big USP is our development of the team. We really care about them being able to progress. Not only is it then rewarding for them but it means the horses are also able to thrive because they’re doing exactly what’s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
MATCH INFO<\/p>\n
First Test at Barbados
West Indies won by 381 runs<\/p>\n
Second Test at\u00a0Antigua
West Indies won by 10 wickets<\/p>\n
Third Test at St Lucia
February 9-13<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the phone went at the racing yard run by Claire and Dan Kubler in England earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[2528,5105,7710,519,448,14557,1715,1426],"class_list":{"0":"post-569236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-bahrain","9":"tag-royal","10":"tag-royal-families","11":"tag-royal-family","12":"tag-royals","13":"tag-sport-team","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-story"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}