Dubai: Strong field for Dubai endurance races on weekend

Gulfnews.com

Staff Report
January 28, 2010

Land Cruiser up for grabs for winners

Dubai: The Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum Ladies Endurance Ride over 90 kilometres and the Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum Endurance Challenge over 100km will be held at Dubai International Endurance City Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Ladies Endurance Ride-CEN 90km is restricted to UAE and Gulf nationals and Arab nationals living in the UAE.

The ride consists of four loops: Yellow (37km), Green (27km), Pink (16km) and White (16km). The vet check will take place today between 3pm and 5pm.

The Endurance Challenge is restricted to UAE nationals from private stables and individuals.

Four loops

The ride consists of four loops: Yellow (37km), Red (31km), Green (27km) and White (12km).

The vet checking will take place tomorrow between 3pm and 5pm.

The general manager of the Dubai Equestrian Club, Ali Mousa Al Khamiri, said: "We expect this ride to be highly competitive and it is sure to attract some of the best endurance riders here in the UAE and the region.

"We are truly grateful for the support from Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture, and we wish all riders the best of luck and welcome all spectators to come and enjoy this weekend event."

A Toyota Land Cruiser is up for grabs for the first place winner of each race, while the second place winners will receive a Nissan Patrol and the third place winners will receive Dh100,000 in cash.

Fourth place winners will be awarded Dh90,000 and the amount will decrease in equal equation until the 11th placing, which receives Dh20,000.

Great Britain: Young lead the way in endurance awards

Thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk - Full Article

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

AN EARLY GBP 800 to send a British Endurance Riding team to the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky was raised by an auction of promises at the annual Awards Dinner of the South West Group of Endurance.

All the groups of Endurance GB have been asked to raise money towards the team's expenses, which will be around GBP 15,000 per horse for air fares and stabling.

At the prize-giving following the auction, it was the younger members of the group that rode off with many of the awards, promising well for the future of endurance riding in Devon and Cornwall.

Jennifer Bridge from Plymouth on her 15.3hh eight-year-old Arab gelding, RA Djoser, won the Open Level Challenge Shield.

"We won the Novice Trophy in 2008, which was our first year of competing in endurance," said Jennifer. "I am delighted that now that we have moved up to Open Level, Djoser is still doing so well.

"We bought him as a three-year-old. He has a lovely temperament but is very fast. We did our first 80km (50 miles) at the Camelford Ride last summer and he won the prize for best conditioned horse."

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Australia: Tami's amazing ride

Tami Parnell riding Jelby Farid at the South
African Endurance Championships in July last
year, where she was unable to finish the race
as her horse was disqualified after failing the
veterinary inspection on one leg half way
through the race. Photo: Submitted

Gleninnesexaminer.com.au - Full Article

NAOMI DAVIDSON
26 Jan, 2010

Climbing to the Federation Equestrian Internationale (FEI) world youth ranking of second in November last year, Glen Innes endurance rider Tami Parnell is hoping to continue to balance work, study and endurance riding, vying for a ranking in the FEI open division this year.

The 21-year-old began riding at pony camps from the age of six. Through trainer Elsie Newsome she became interested in endurance riding. Ms Parnell said horse riders either went into pony club, campdraft or endurance riding.

"You do endurance because you love it. There would be no other reason to get up at midnight and ride for 17 hours," she said.

Ms Parnell rode a total of 1200km all over Australia, South Africa, Namibia, and New Zealand over the past 24 months. She has ridden for some of the top Australian stables like TOFT Endurance and Castlebar.

Her FEI ranking is based on kilometres, accumulating points for the number of kilometres ridden and place achieved (first in a 120km ride is 120 points). Ms Parnell said she placed in the top six in all eight FEI youth rides she competed in last year, including second in Western Australia.

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Australia: Toft aims to go to world games

QT.com.au - Full Article

Joel Gould | 26th January 2010

WITH Alexandra Toft's world junior ranking now at number three, she has turned her attention to qualifying for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky this year.

The 14-year-old Toft, who said she was "very excited" to have won the Australia Day sports award for Ipswich, excelled in her debut World Youth and Junior Endurance Championships in Hungary last year with a 17th placing in the gruelling 120km event.

The next World Youth and Junior Endurance Championships are in the Middle East in 2011 but the World Endurance Championships, for seniors, is part of the program in Kentucky.

Toft, who lives at Marburg, said she had to compete and excel in as many 160km events as possible to qualify for the world titles.

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FEI: NEW CLEAN SPORT WEBSITE LAUNCHED

www.feicleansport.org

The FEI launched a new website dedicated to its ongoing Clean Sport Campaign.

The website contains information about the new regulations that the FEI is implementing this year to combat doping in equestrian sports. The rule changes and other components of the Clean Sport Campaign were approved unanimously at the FEI’s General Assembly in Copenhagen last November.

“We felt it was important to have a dedicated site where people could go to get all the information they needed,” FEI Secretary General Alex McLin said. “We firmly believe this site will raise awareness of our anti-doping efforts and increase overall compliance with the new rules when they come into force on 5 April this year.”

The site is specifically tailored to the needs of athletes, vets, officials, media and others to help them understand their roles in the Clean Sport Campaign. The site also contains details about the new Equestrian Community Integrity Unit that was a key recommendation of the Joint-Commissions to help monitor corruption, identify offenders and conflicts of interest in equestrian sports, as well as safeguard horse welfare. Members of the Equestrian Community Integrity Unit will be present at major FEI events beginning in April.

The new Clean Sport website will be complemented by the FEI’s revamped website www.fei.org which is due to be launched shortly.

New Zealand: Horsing Around in Otaua

Otauavillage.blogspot.com

Here are the edited highlights of a newsletter delivered to Otaua/Aka Aka residents in preparation for the:

FEI North Island Endurance
Championship Competition

January 30/31 and February 1, 2010

(Auckland Anniversary Weekend)

Hosted by Counties Distance Riding Club

SPECTATORS WELCOME
come and watch the top 100 horses in NZ Endurance race.

* Base Camp is in Smiths' paddock on Maioro Road (opposite Tavern- which is still abandoned and uninhabited - would have been an awesome weekend to be in operation!)

* Riding will be along the stopbank system of Otaua-Aka Aka district and into the Waiuku Forest, a course of 160km in total.

* The competition takes place over two days and nights on the Saturday and Sunday but Otaua Village will be "horsey" from as early as Tuesday 26th January and until Monday the 1st February.

* This is an international event with over 15 foreign entries and officials.

* Competition starts at 1.00am Saturday (Yep, that's in the morning!) and will continue until approx 6pm Saturday. Competition on Sunday starts at 4.00 am and goes through to about 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

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Malaysia: RTES Riders Lead in Endurance Race

Malaysia.news

Bernama - Sunday, January 24

KUALA TERENGGANU, Jan 24 (Bernama) -- Riders from the Royal Terengganu Endurance Stable (RTES) took the first four prizes in the 80km category in the RTES championship which ended today.

They are Abdul Halim, who won the first prize, Mohd Bukhari (second), Mohd Afifi Firdaus (third) and Asri Abdul Aziz (fourth). Fifth place was won by Datuk Mohd Shuaib Ishak from the Ar-Raudhah Equine Centre. Fifteen participants took part, but only 13 were able to complete the race.

For the national-level competition in the same category, Muhamad Suhaidi Syawal from the An-Nassir Equestrian Club finished first followed by Amir Ghani Ahmad (Penn Endurance), Tengku Sri Temenggong Raja (State of Terengganu Endurence Team)and Aizuddin Aripin (Masterscaff Endurence), in the second, third and fourth place respectively.

In the 40km category, Aminuddin Abdullah and Mohd Faizal Hamid, both from the State of Terengganu Endurance Team (STET) won the first and second prize respectively, while in third place was Zainuddin Yusof, from the Elmina Equestrian Centre.

The RTES championship was also held to prepare riders for the Malaysia Games in Melaka in June.

-- BERNAMA