Abu Dhabi: Anoud Al Suwaidi will be the second lady jockey from the UAE to compete in flat racing at the HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies’ World Championship to be held in Al Flaij, Oman on January 17. The event is part of the calendar for the HH Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Festival, which was announced at a press conference at the Eastern Mangrove Hotel here on Monday.
Al Suwaidi will carry the country’s flag in all the races of the festival except in St Moritz, Switzerland. “The Switzerland race will have new rules mainly to uphold the safety of the jockeys while riding in snow. Only professional jockeys with five wins will be allowed to participate and they will have to maintain a weight of 58 kilograms,” Lara Sawaya, director of the festival and chairman of the International Federation of Arabian Horse racing (IFHAR) Ladies Racing Committee, said at the press conference.
This year’s Ladies World Championship series will have 14 races and the finals will be held in Abu Dhabi on November 9.
The 2014 HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship will be held in five countries and will give young aspiring apprentices from the UAE, Oman, Qatar, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Italy, Sweden, South Africa and the United States an opportunity to show their skills on Purebred Arabian horses.
The apprentice races will see prize money of €15,000 (Dh75,282) per race along with points. The schools excelling in the series will receive €30,000 and their apprentices will get an opportunity to train with the best.
An important leg of the HH Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup series commences in Melbourne on February 1. It will have attractive prize funds and see top horses from various regions in action. The Festival’s Triple Crown will carry an additional prize fund of €30,000 and assures consistency and class in the prestigious series.
The World Arabian Horse Racing Conference, meanwhile, will be held at the St. James Theatre London from May 27-30. The conference brings together hundreds of members from the Purebred Arabian racing fraternity to share their thoughts, views, ideas and vision to enhance the profile of Arabian horseracing.
The HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Darley Awards Hollywood 2014 will be held this time at the Dolby Theatre (House of Oscar) in Hollywood on April 4 and will feature 11 categories for Ladies in Arabian Racing.
Weiger de Ruiter, an executive board member of IFHAR said: “Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been the protector of his father’s legacy and one of which is Arabian horseracing. He had made sure to enhance it, be it Arabian horses, jockeys, breeding, handling and training.”
