De Kock sends promising Australian-bred Ertijaal in Al Rashidiya

These days there are nonstop flights from all over the world to Dubai, but that’s not exactly how it works for racehorses traveling from South Africa.

Fears over African horse sickness have motivated an incredibly demanding shipping regimen in order to make this trip, one South African trainer Mike de Kock, a vocal critic of the protocol, knows all too well.

The handful of South Africa-based horses de Kock decided to export to Dubai last year began their journey in August, shipping to Mauritius for a long quarantine. Then it was on to another quarantine facility at Newmarket in England for several more weeks, and finally, in December, a last leg of the trip to Dubai.

One of those South African shippers, Ertijaal, is set for his Dubai debut Thursday night at Meydan in the Group 2, $200,000 Al Rashidiya Stakes. A 4-year-old Australian-bred on Southern Hemisphere time, he is not to be confused with the 5-year-old Ireland-bred Ertijaal, a sharp turf-sprint winner Jan. 7 at Meydan for the same owner as the Aussie-bred Ertijaal, Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum. Ertijaal easily is the most interesting of 14 horses entered in the Al Rashidiya, a grass race carded at 1,800 meters, or about nine furlongs.

The Al Rashidiya is the fourth of seven races Thursday at Meydan. Post time for the Al Rashidiya is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. Eastern, and the card starts at 9 a.m..

Ertijaal, by Hard Spun, hasn’t raced since May, and given the long break and the taxing ship almost certainly won’t be ready for anything like his best Thursday, but de Kock has won the race before with very talented imports like Vercingetorix and The Apache. As a 3-year-old in South Africa, Ertijaal was a Group 1 winner over 10 furlongs on turf in the Cape Derby, and in his South African swan song he finished second in another Group 1 to French Navy, who in July was sixth of 18 as the second 3-year-old home in South Africa’s biggest race, the Durban July Handicap. Ertijaal, who will have Sheikh Hamdan’s stable rider Paul Hanagan in the irons, prefers good going and will find it at Meydan, where the turf has played quite fast this World Cup Carnival.

De Kock has a second South African-raced 4-year-old in the Al Rashidiya, Forries Waltz, a South African-bred who has been in Dubai well over a year now. He ran poorly in his lone start last winter at Meydan, but returned Jan. 14 to win a 1,600-meter turf handicap over the Meydan course, and if he is not as inherently talented as Ertijaal, he might well be the fitter horse Thursday.

Earnshaw, who raced in France in 2013 and 2014, started the Dubai phase of his career promisingly last winter, finishing third to Safety Check in the Group 2 Zabeel Mile before coming home a solid fifth on World Cup Night in the Group 1 Dubai Turf. But Earnshaw returned to action Jan. 7 at Meydan and raced well below his top form, finishing ninth of 16 in a 10-furlong turf handicap, and it’s hard to know what to expect after such a substandard comeback run.

Mubtaarij, a 7-year-old, won the 2014 Al Rashidiya for de Kock and Sheikh Hamdan, but has lost his six starts since.

In other Thursday night action:

* The standing of the other Ertijaal racing in Dubai, the Irish-bred sprinter, could be enhanced or tarnished after the second race on the program, a six-furlong turf handicap that includes several horses left in Ertijaal’s wake on Jan. 7.

* Race 7, a one-mile turf handicap for horses rated 100-113, includes another recent South African import trained by de Kock, Liquid Mercury.