‘Missiles coming from all directions’: Sydney racecaller Darren Flindell caught up in Qatar chaos

Sydney’s premier racecaller Darren Flindell has been caught up in the escalating conflict in the Middle East, capturing vision of missiles being fired towards a military base in Qatar.

Sydney racecaller Darren Flindell captured vision of the attack on Doha in Qatar overnight.

Sydney’s premier racecaller Darren Flindell has been caught up in the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

Flindell was holidaying in Qatar’s capital city, Doha, when Iran launched missiles at a nearby US Air Force base just a few hours ago.

Flindell filmed some of the missiles being intercepted by the air defence system over Doha, saying they were “coming from all directions”.

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“We were out having dinner and it was just after 7.30pm when we noticed the first missiles,’’ Flindell said.

“We decided to get back to our hotel quickly and stay here just in case there were road closures or something like that.

“The attacks lasted about 15 minutes. We felt safe enough because we knew the missiles were being aimed at the US military base which is about 40km out of Doha.

“But you start to worry where all the debris is going to land because the missiles were being fired so close to the city.’’

Doha under attack tonight from Iran. Very unsettling I have to say. This was filmed by me at 7.34pm local time from the rooftop bar at Tropicana pic.twitter.com/5NObBYRHtw

— Darren Flindell (@hkdarren) June 23, 2025

Flindell spoke to News Corp just after midnight in Doha where the situation remained tense although Iran had not fired any more missiles for some hours.

“It’s been quite unsettling,’’ he said.

Flindell was having a short Doha stopover on the way to Ireland where he is planning to attend the Irish Derby race meeting at The Curragh on the weekend.

But Doha’s airport is closed with no planes coming in or out of Qatar.

“I did get a travel warning from the Australian Government on Saturday morning about flying to the Middle East before I called the races at Randwick,’’ Flindell revealed.

“But we decided to take our flight to Qatar on Saturday night hoping everything would be OK.

“We are due to fly out of Doha for Ireland in the morning and although we don’t have any notification our flight has been cancelled yet, we will have to see what happens in the morning.’’

Flindell is on holidays for a month and not due to return until the Rosehill Gardens meeting on July 19.

Originally published as ‘Missiles coming from all directions’: Sydney racecaller Darren Flindell caught up in Qatar chaos