Have You Heard About The Dubai Cowboys Heading To Cheltenham?

The Dubai Cowboys Syndicate are off to the world-famous Cheltenham Festival in March with their star, Shoot First.

Syndicate member Jurgen Quinlan has a long relationship with horse racing and, after a visit to Charles Byrnes in June of last year, purchased Shoot First with the Dubai Cowboys Syndicate.

The Dubai Cowboys Syndicate consists of eight guys, seven based in Dubai. Jurgen, John O’Leary, Les Cox, Bill Quinlan, Kevin Hassett, Jason McKeown, Aiser Ibrahim, and Mark Feighery make up the syndicate who have struck gold with their first purchase.

Shortly after purchasing, Shoot First was an impressive three-length winner at Tipperary, followed by an unlucky second at the Galway Festival.

From there, trainer Charles Byrnes hatched a plan to head to Cheltenham in October, and, as Jurgen says himself, “the rest is history.”

Shoot First duly delivered at Cheltenham, winning by two lengths, ridden by Byrnes’ son Phillip, who was having his first ride around the famous track. The gamble had well and truly been landed for the Dubai Cowboys, and we’re reliably informed the party lasted quite a while.

That victory qualified Shoot First for the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, for which he is one of the favourites. In trainer Charles Byrnes, they have a man with an incredible CV, with several previous winners at the Cheltenham Festival, including Weapon’s Amnesty and Solwhit.

Oh, and watch this space for details about that Cheltenham Preview Night Jurgen mentioned 😉