MICHAEL COSTA TO RETURN TO QUEENSLAND

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, March 24, 2026

Trainer Michael Costa will return to set up his training base in Queensland following the Dubai World Cup meeting at Meydan on Saturday.

In 2022 Costa got the break of a lifetime when he received a phone call, which he described as ‘coming out of left field’, with an offer for him to become the private trainer for Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at Jebel Ali Stables in Dubai.

Four years and over one-hundred winners later, Costa can return to Australia knowing that he has achieved results which stand to his credit, but the experience he gained during his time in Dubai in control of a incredible racing operation, working in conjunction with one of the most knowledgeable owners in the business, will arguably be of far more benefit to him when he returns to the fray in Queensland than any particular race result.

It will certainly help give him every chance of regaining the prominent position he held in the Queensland training ranks at the time of his departure where his winning strike-rate was always a statistic of particular note.

Costa could yet go out in a blaze of glory in Dubai as the stable has three runners on the Dubai World Cup program on Saturday.

Marbaan is entered for the Al Quoz Sprint. Midland Money is scheduled to race in the Dubai Golden Shaheen, while Elnajmm will take up the challenge in the Dubai Turf.

The Dubai World Cup meeting boast a total prizemoney pool of US30.5 million.

If he could win any of the three races in which the stable has runners, it would be a very big send-off indeed for Costa and it would put an real exclamation mark on his four year stay in Dubai, which he has understandably called ‘lifechanging’.

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