Preparations on for fifth World Arabian Horseracing Conference

Dubai: Details of the fifth World Arabian Horseracing Conference and races worth a total of £100,000 (Dh588,254) were outlined at a press briefing held at Newbury racecourse on Saturday.

The event was hosted by Lara Sawaya, director of the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival. The UK will provide the venue for the 2014 renewal of the event, which was launched in Abu Dhabi in 2010 under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and has since visited Holland, Germany and France.

The World Arabian Horse Racing Conference 2014 will run over five days beginning on May 28 and will include three days of seminars at St James Theatre, London, followed by racing at Newbury on May 31 and a proposed endurance ride on June 1. About 400 delegates from all over the world are expected to attend.

On the fifth and final day of the event, the first-ever running of Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies CEIO two-star 120k endurance race is lined to take place.

Sawaya said: “This is a very special year for us as we celebrate the fifth World Arabian Horseracing Conference. We will have five events over five days to celebrate our five years. We will have the conference, two Arabian races, an Endurance race and our gala dinner. It will be the biggest gathering of world Arabian racing organisations ever to be held.

“The HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship [IFAHR] is now in its third running at Newbury, but the proposed 120km two-star endurance ride will be something new for this year and we hope many people will come and see this fascinating sport.”

In addition to the UK leg of the HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship, the Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup will be staged in the UK for the first time. Part of an important 12-race international series for purebred Arabians, the race will become the second most valuable Arabian race in the UK with a total prize fund of £70,000.