Interest low for Arabian racing in England: Walis

Abu Dhabi: Arabian horse racing is yet to catch on in England according to Stephen Walis, Managing Director of Newmarket racecourse, considered the home of racing.

Walis, who was here in Abu Dhabi and watched Sunday's UAE Arabian Derby, said, "Arabian racing has not yet captured the attention of the racing fans in the UK.

"A full card of Arabian racing will not draw any crowd so we just have to add one race either at the start or the end of a day's meeting," said Walis, who took over as the Newmarket chief after a long stint at Epsom Downs.

Limited amount

"The UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation have been supporting Arabian races at Newmarket and there have been people interested and this is bound to grow," he said.

Commenting on the challenges at the helm, Walis said, "We just have 38 days of racing in a year and this year is special with the 200th running of the 2000 Guineas.

"As there is only a limited amount of leisure time available to people, we not only have to compete with our own sport, but also other sport as well as other factors - like nowadays even going to a shopping mall is a leisure activity," he said.

"We have to fill the stands and recently we have been adding on concerts with the likes of Bryan Adams performing. All this helps and while we do like to diversify we should not forget that racing is our primary focus and that Newmarket as the homes of racing must continue to keep doing well.

"With revenues from racing limited only to the 38 days we have other sources and conferences and other events on non-racing days has fetched us up to two million pounds a year," he said.