Major blow for Endurance GB as Dubai Equestrian Club pulls plug on Euston Park sponsorship

Telegraph.co.uk - Full Article

Endurance riding in Great Britain has suffered a huge blow with the Dubai Equestrian Club pulling its blanket sponsorship of Euston Park, axing the Thetford venue’s entire 2013 calendar.

By Pippa Cuckson
10:00PM BST 09 May 2013

The loss of four major race rides — to endurance riding, the equivalent of horse racing losing both Newmarket and Ascot – was announced in a single sentence on Euston Park’s website, which effectively shut down on Wednesday. The national governing body, Endurance GB, has not been offered a reason.

The development follows a week of further publicity surrounding doping cases within Sheikh Mohammed’s wider equine interests including Telegraph Sport's disclosure on Wednesday that some 20 horses trained in stables owned by the Maktoum family in Dubai had been involved in FEI doping cases since 2005.

Telegraph Sport understands that prior to the revelations that led to Sheikh Mohammed’s racehorse trainer, Mahmood Al Zarooni, being banned for eight years, Endurance GB was already resisting proposals for another "private ride" not under the rules of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI).

A similar concept was staged at Euston in August 2009 which enabled Sheikh Mohammed and three other riders, all then serving FEI suspensions, to compete...

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