Michael Costa may be a new name to some European readers, but he is not new to success. The Australian trainer has switched his home of Surfers Paradise for the stunning views of the Dubai skyline. A life-changing move, both personally and professionally, he flew his wife Melanie and four children 12,000km across the Indian Ocean and for the last 18 months has been based at Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's private stable of Jebel Ali.
It must be said that he has made an eye-catching start: with 19 wins from 60 runs so far this season, Costa is currently the leading trainer in the region. He is set to saddle five runners at Meydan's meeting this Friday.
Head-hunted by the sheikh's racing manager Mohamed Al Shehhi, he is highly respected in his homeland. In the words of Australian Hall of Fame trainer Chris Waller, “Michael Costa gets improvement out of any horse he's given.”
Costa previously studied Equine Acupuncture and spent time as a steward before starting training the hard way from scratch. Famed for having an enviable strike rate, he was also known for getting the best from his team and placing his horses well. His stable star, Phobetor (Aus) (Dream Ahead), won the 2021 G2 Missile S., a highlight to Costa's CV and the perfect way to end that chapter of his career.
The move to a different country has reshaped the trainer's professional trajectory. When based at the Gold Coast, Costa primarily purchased from horses-in-training sales to sweeten horses up for improvement via a change of scenery before strategically placing them for syndicate ownership. Going from mostly syndicating to now working exclusively for Sheikh Ahmed, much adapting has taken place. Expanding from six afternoon staff to 76 full-time staff members is just one difference that illustrates the magnitude of training for such a prominent owner.
He says, “The fact that we've hit the ground running this season is all due to the staff's determination and positive outlook over the summer which has put us in this position of the horses performing so well.
“Being a trainer in Australia you have to wear many hats: you're selling, you're marketing, you're doing all these things, whereas in this role you're more usually pointing the people in the right direction and the hard work is done by the staff. We've got a great team.”
Costa continues, “The biggest hurdle that trainers have to face in Australia, and I'm sure it's the same in other parts of the world, is owners' communication, accounts and staffing issues, and those three things are now completely lacking in my role. My role is about finding the best horses that we can and getting the greatest outlook, as well as managing my team.
“I treat this operation as if it is still my own business. We're not going crazy at the sales. We've only purchased one horse in Book 1 so far. The rest has all been below the average and just buying good physicals, and that filters through to how we operate, with no excess, and with efficiency.
“I'm still in the mode of running my own business as I did in Australia, but I'm just very lucky that I don't have to spend as much time on chasing accounts and those sorts of things. That puts me in a very lucky position to do what most trainers get involved in it to do, and that's because they love the horse. So I've managed to get back close to the horse and now I go home smelling like a horse and that's what it all about.”
For Costa, last year was very much a fact-finding mission. He had to get to know all the horses for starters, as well as his new facilities, from dirt tracks, to the traits in the European pedigrees of some of his horses. Costa and his team found their feet quickly and managed to bring 13 winners home, which was more than the previous four seasons combined for the Jebel Ali stable.
This injection of fresh ambition, along with significant investment in horseflesh, is all part of Sheikh Ahmed's rejuvenation of Jebel Ali. Plans include a new grandstand along with using more of the desert land that surrounds the racecourse and training stables to better effect, including planting more trees. The revival mission is well underway and starting to reap rewards.
As a modern-day trainer with global ambitions, Costa has every corner covered when it comes to recruiting horses, from buying yearlings and having agents in a variety of countries looking out for any early potential and sourcing exciting prospects such as Mawthog (NZ) (Echoes Of Heaven {Aus}), who was noticed when winning a trial at Ruakaka. Another is Homebrew (Street Sense), a lightly-raced listed winner in the US for Brad Cox, while Carolina Reaper (NZ) (Vespa {NZ}) won a Group 3 at Pukekohe Park in New Zealand. These are just three examples that were all privately purchased, and they have joined a good mix of battle-hardened older horses who know the walks of Jebel Ali well. Then there are the annual picks from Sheikh Ahmed's European-based horses who bring strong form. This year they include Newbury maiden winner Lajooje (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) and last year's G2 Vintage S. winner Marbaan (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}).
As the temperatures rose for the UAE summer, Costa conducted an international shopping spree, starting from the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in Sydney to the United States for the breeze-ups and horses-in-training sales.
A number of trainers in Dubai have more horses than he does. Jebel Ali holds 70, and one of those boxes is home to a past successful homebred in Morshdi (GB) (Slip Anchor {GB}), who is now 25 and long retired. He was quite the jet-setter back in his prime, taking the G1 Derby Italiano before finishing second to Galileo (Ire) in the G1 Irish Derby.
Costa's attention to detail has prompted some major upgrades to facilities at Jebel Ali. The changes include grass pens, an equine swimming pool, two treadmills, a spa, plus an arena with some poles and jumps, which can be hugely beneficial to the horse's mind with getting them to think and use themselves in a completely different way than when galloping around a track.
Costa was temporarily joined by his fellow Australian, jockey James Orman, who flew over to kick the first six winners home before Irishman Ben Coen took over as retained first jockey for the season.
“The season we are in now is about getting back Dubai dominance,” he says. “Once our yearlings come in and start to filter through for year three and onwards, we will start to look at travelling horses more abroad. With the way that the 2-year-olds have hit the track so far and the way we are rebuilding in the stable from the ground up, the 2-year-olds turning three will be the best opportunity for our horses to travel, so we are just getting into the crunch time now of coming into the better races, and we will know shortly what will travel.”
So if all goes to plan, we could be seeing more of Michael Costa and his team on the world stage.
He continues, “Initially, the first season I was just looking at what the other successful trainers in the UAE were doing, and their approach was a lot of form horses and a lot of breeze-up horses. What I wanted to do was ask the question–you get all these internationals arrive, and while we do get some UAE horses who are competitive on the big night, it is dominated a lot by the international horses, and there are not a lot of UAE horses who travel. So the question I asked myself was, 'Why is this?' The simple answer we came up with was that we've got to be buying the same horses that Chad Brown is buying, or William Haggas is buying, or the prominent trainers.
“His Highness's approach was to go to buy yearlings of varying types from Australian speed to European stamina to the dirt horses. Ultimately we just look for an athletic horse and a fast horse, and we've got the beauty of running on the dirt or the turf. Ultimately we want a fast horse first, and if they win a Group 1 on the turf, we're not going to be worried, or if they win a Group 1 on the dirt then that's great as well. I've spent some time with a few very good agents in the US, and everyone has their own idea of what makes a good dirt horse, but I think you can overcomplicate it. You're just looking for an athletic horse and if you start there then the rest should fall into place.”
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