Dubai, Meydan Racecourse.
Meydan Racecourse had two tracks. The outer Turf Course was an oval, left-handed track, while the inner track was the Tapeta Course.
The Turf Course was 2,400 meters long and 30 meters wide, with a 450-meter home straight and a separate 1,200-meter straight.
The Tapeta Course was 1,750 meters long and 25 meters wide, with a 400-meter home straight.
The racecourse was flat, but its turns were somewhat tight, putting horses advancing from wide draws on the Tapeta Course at a disadvantage. Those starting from outside stalls in the 1,200- and 1,800-meter Tapeta races faced a particularly difficult task.
Horses racing on the Tapeta Course kicked up less material than on traditional dirt tracks in North America, so front-runners had less of an advantage than they did on dirt.
The horse owners and horse trainers were naturally watching the races from the viewing area.
Yutaka Take and Koichi, meanwhile, watched the races on the television in the waiting room.
Both were fairly quiet while watching.
Only after a race ended would they briefly discuss how it had gone.
Although they had no races at the moment, they would surely have opportunities to bring horses here in the future. This was a chance to build up experience, and before today's races began, they had both gone out to inspect the conditions.
"The gap really is still pretty big."
Watching the Three-Year-Old Dirt Derby, Yutaka Take shook his head.
Of course, that also had to do with the lack of emphasis on dirt racing back home. Whatever the case, the prize money for dirt races was far too low, and there were no real plans to import strong dirt stallions.
"Yeah, the starting stall position isn't very good either."
That was Koichi's assessment.
They still had their weights on,