Godolphin’s Dilmi getting used to isolated life
Australia’s biggest racing week of the year is almost upon us and Nacim Dilmi, one of the key personnel in the country’s largest racing operation Godolphin, will be watching the majority of the action unfold on his hotel room TV.
The popular Dilmi won’t be trackside at Flemington or Randwick, nor will he be casting his trained eye over the large string of James Cummings-trained horses each morning at Warwick Farm.
Instead, he and wife Lauren are undertaking their third stint of hotel quarantine this year – six weeks in total – in his role as Godolphin’s unofficial travelling foreman where he will be the man-on-the-ground to oversee the Perth campaigns of high-class sprinter Trekking (Street Cry) and Kementari (Lonhro).
Talk to anyone who has undertaken the compulsory hotel quarantine period in recent months – the Kiwis who were bunkered down at Surfers Paradise for the Magic Millions National Sale or jockeys moving states – and most will tell you the 14-day stint bordered on torture.
Dilmi, speaking yesterday from his Perth hotel with a window which provides a glimpse of Ascot racecourse, admitted his stint so far in Western Australia had proven more difficult than what he encountered in Adelaide and Brisbane earlier this year.
“Actually, it’s not until this one that I realised that it is really hard, not just on me, but all the people who are in their 50s and 60s who have to do it on their own,” said Dilmi, who came to Australia 11 years ago with Lauren “for six months” and has never left.
“I am lucky I am here with my wife, but that is what is so challenging is for people on their own. It’s pretty tough – it’s not an easy thing to do, being stuck in an apartment and not being able to get outside.”
Entering his sixth day of quarantine today and armed with a skipping rope in an attempt to exercise each day, Dilmi will be allowed out on Friday week and he is thankful Lauren is with him.
“(Travelling foreman) is not my title, but it is always easier when they are sending away a handful of horses to send my wife and I as we can get the job done together,” he said.
“It’s easier sending a couple rather than sending someone away for five or six weeks away from their partners.
“Lauren rides trackwork and does office work as well within Godolphin and it’s lucky she is here with me as she is the one keeping me quiet – otherwise I’d be climbing the wall already.”
It is likely that Dilmi’s current stint will be the last one he needs to undertake as Victoria, in particular, gets its coronavirus second wave under control.
Monday’s press conference by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announcing a relaxation of restrictions was also good news for Godolphin’s Melbourne stable employees including Reg Fleming who has been Cummings’ ears and eyes for the past six months.
“When Andrews was giving his press conference I was on the phone to Reg Fleming and he was rapt and for the guys down there at the (Melbourne) stables, they have had it tough,” Dilmi said.
“James hasn’t seen the horses for six months and it was the same when I went to Queensland – he couldn’t come up – so regularly we were taking videos of the horses and keeping him updated all the time. Reg and Sean Keogh in Melbourne have done that pretty much every second day, so James is on top of everything.”
The Dilmis will be reporting back to headquarters on the progress of Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m)-bound Trekking, runner-up in Friday night’s Manikato Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and Kementari who finished fifth in the same race.
Best Of Days (Azamour), who is entered for Saturday’s Cantala Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington, and six-year-old Gaulois (Street Cry) could join the sprinters in Perth if he runs up to expectations.
“When James asked me about Perth, I thought ‘I have never been here’ and it’s a place I’d always like to come to, so I thought I’d give it a go,” said Dilmi who started his career in racing as an apprentice jockey for the now retired trainer Criquette Head.
“I had to talk to Lauren first, and she said it wasn’t going to be for six months, so for sure, let’s go.”