Members of the racing community in Dubai for Super Saturday now face an anxious wait for the airport to reopen in the wake of the American and Israeli attacks on Iran which resulted in the death of Ayatollah Al Khamenei.Racing went ahead at Meydan on a day when the Fairmont hotel on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah caught fire after being hit during an Iranian air attack. Overnight on Saturday, the Dubai International Airport (DXB), which serves some 250,000 passengers daily, also sustained damage which resulted in injuries to four passengers, according to multiple reports. Thousands of flights had already been cancelled to and from the UAE on Saturday, with Abu Dhabi's airport and Dubai's Burj Al Arab hotel also being hit by falling debris from missile interceptions.Sunday's scheduled race meeting for Jebel Ali has been postponed to March 15.Trainer Jamie Osborne, a regular visitor to Meydan, where he has trained six winners during the current Dubai Racing Carnival, told TDN on Sunday morning, “They've just announced that the airport won't reopen until Monday afternoon at the earliest. I would imagine the reality of it opening then will depend largely on what happens in the next 24 hours.“There appears to be less airborne action today than there was yesterday. It was kind of surreal yesterday. We were racing and you could see missiles being hit out of the air above us.”He said that the horses stabled at Meydan were all unfazed by the activity but added, “There were a few loud bangs quite close to the international stables this morning but the horses are fine. Other than that, you wouldn't necessarily know there was anything going on.“We'll just have to sit it out. Obviously, there's a backlog of people trying to get out of the country, so I don't know quite how long it's going to take us to do it.”Francis Graffard, who had been at Meydan to oversee Rayevka in the G3 Nad Al Sheba Turf Sprint and has the world's top-rated racehorse Calandagan entered for the Dubai Sheema Classic on March 28, had been due to leave Dubai after Saturday's meeting. He said, “It's pretty quiet here but we don't know when we will be able to leave. I had looked at taking a flight from Oman, but I think I'll just stay in my hotel in Dubai and wait. The Emirates flights have all been cancelled for tomorrow afternoon.”Bloodstock agent and racing advisor Federico Barberini said that a security alert sent to people's phones during the night had caused some alarm but that the situation had quietened on Sunday morning. “To be perfectly honest, if I didn't read the news, I wouldn't know that there was anything going on today,” he said.“Around 1am we had an alert to our phones saying take shelter, so that scared us, obviously. We spent half an hour by the door and then I went to bed and slept with my jeans on and my passport in my pocket.” The alert sent to mobile phones in the early hours of Sunday Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum was at Meydan on Saturday to enjoy the 21st victory for his evergreen Rebel's Romance in the G2 Dubai City of Gold and to witness two notable victories for his brother, Sheikh Ahmed. Anthony Stroud, who works closely with the Godolphin operation, said on Sunday of Sheikh Mohammed's presence at the meeting, “That's the sort of man he is really. I mean, when there are problems to be addressed, he is very much at the fore of it all.”He added, “It has been a bit nerve-wracking, and these missiles keep coming over, but apart from that, we're watching CNN or BBC, and it's okay really.”Simon Crisford, who, with his son Ed, trained three winners on the Super Saturday card, including the Group 2 winners Quddwah and Meydaan for Sheikh Ahmed, said, “When Sheikh Mohammed goes racing it always makes it more special and it was a great thrill for us to win for Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid as well. I've been connected with him ever since I was at John Dunlop's and we had a horse called Wassl, who won the Irish 2,000 Guineas [in 1983].”He added, “Now we are just waiting for further information. The authorities have been brilliant and they're keeping everyone informed. I don't know when the airport will open but all of the horses seem to be fine and everyone else is fine.”On Saturday, March 28, Dubai is set to stage one of the world's richest racedays, the Dubai World Cup meeting, which is worth a total of $30.5 million.The post ‘I Slept With My Jeans On And My Passport In My Pocket’: Racing Community Marooned in Dubai appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.