Learning the racehorse trainer’s art in the Emirates, Mahmood Al Zarooni impressed with his instinctive ability to straighten the kinks in the most wayward of thoroughbreds.

Meydan City

That understanding has served him well when dealing with demanding owners during his fledgling career.

But, with a victory from his first runner as Godolphin’s new trainer – at Meydan on Dubai World Cup night – a third in the Derby and a head defeat in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, it isn’t one he’s been called on to practise on his new boss, Sheikh Mohammed.

“I’ve been working in stables before and I know – everybody knows – how some owners are not easy to deal with,” explains the 33-year-old, “but His Highness is amazing – you would not believe it.”

As assistant to Saeed bin Suroor, Al Zarooni was preparing Godolphin’s horses for the Dubai World Cup fixture when the sheikh arrived at the Al Quoz stables unannounced.

“He told me to jump in the car,” recalls Al Zarooni, who served time with Rod Simpson, Ali Al Raihe and Mubarak bin Shafya before joining Godolphin.

“He was silent, then he told me he had decided to give me a licence. It was sudden and my brain couldn’t take it in.

“At the time I didn’t know how to thank him – it was a shock for me.”

Working on the basis that actions speak louder than words, Al Zarooni forgot about the verbals and focussed on the task of repaying the Sheikh’s faith.

His first opportunity came with Calming Influence in the Group 2 Godolphin Mile, the second race on the World Cup card.

Ridden by Ahmed Ajtebi, the jockey now retained by his Moulton Paddocks stable in Newmarket, the five-year-old won by a length.

“I said I would be happy to finish fourth in a big race at Meydan but, to be honest, I didn’t expect to win,” remembers Al Zarooni.

“What made it really great for me was that it was the first day for Meydan, and World Cup night.

“To have a winner with my first runner – I was very, very happy. I thank God and I thank His Highness for being in Godolphin.”

It wasn’t beginner’s luck. Rewilding made the frame at Epsom, 13 days after Bethrah denied Al Zarooni a first Classic when pipping Anna Salai at the post on the Curragh.

Anna Salai, like Rewilding a graduate of the Andre Fabre equine academy, has been added to the field for Friday’s Coronation Stakes, where she will clash with another filly seeking Redemption, the Henry Ceciltrained Jacqueline Quest.

Inwardly, Al Zarooni will be desperate to crown such a bright beginning to his new role with a Group 1 success. Externally, he’s playing the long game.

“I’m not going to say I’m going to win. I want to get involved and learn more for the future,” he says.

“I’m 33, so I’m still young, and I’m going to see what’s happening and learn.

“Anna Salai ran very well and I hope she can run a good race, but it’s not easy – she is running against some nice fillies, and she was fit and professional when she came from Andre Fabre.

“She hasn’t improved, and she hasn’t gone down.”

The educational process will continue for years to come, but Al Zarooni knows that Newmarket is the ideal place for a man in his position.

“Newmarket is like school for me – it’s the best place in the world to be around horses and to learn, because you’re around the best trainers in the world.

“His Highness took me in the car to show me Moulton Paddocks, and on the way we passed Warren Hill.

“When I saw Warren Hill, I saw something that I can’t express in English – if you learn Arabic, I will tell you!

“I was frightened and excited, but very happy. I watched Newmarket on TV when I was in Dubai, but it is much, much better in reality than on the TV.

“In Dubai we would run once a week at Nad Al Sheba. Here you are running every day and up and down the country, on firm ground and on soft ground.

“There is a great deal of variety, and you learn a lot. I am always watching trainers and trying to follow them.”

One thorny lesson Newmarket’s newest trainer will learn is that the good times can be all too fleeting.

At the end of the 1990’s, bin Suroor, a Derby winner with Lammtarra early in his career, was routinely bagging Europe’s most longed-for trophies.

A dip in the stable’s fortunes – as the original crack squad fleshed out to become a bloated and unmanageable horde – was inevitable.

Jealousy among peers made way for schadenfreude until the trainer’s resurgent 2009 boasted 202 victories across the globe, including 13 in Group 1’s. During the lean times bin Suroor drew support from the sheikh, who resisted the temptation for root-andbranch change to a winning formula in need of just a nip and a tuck.

Neither will there be a knee jerk when Al Zarooni suddenly loses his Midas touch.

“Some owners, who have one horse, will give you a hard life. I have more than 100 horses for His Highness, and I don’t feel one per cent of pressure I felt with private owners before.

“He’s the ruler of Dubai, and if he wasn’t like this he wouldn’t be a ruler.

“He’s been in this game a long time, and he knows the game very well.”