The First Italian World Championships Was A Brilliant Success

Horsereporter.com - Full Article

By Pamela@horsereporter
September 30, 2013

The World Championships Young Horses held for the first time in our country ended last night with the closing ceremony and with the awards officialized by the FEI president Ian Williams. The World Champion title went to the French Aurelien Rocchia who rode Secret de mon Coeur. The second was the Spanish Silvia Yebra Altimiras, while the third was another French, Laurent Mosti.

There has been a strong urge and desire to impress and to leave the mark in occasion of the first World Championships Young Horses held in Italy. The dream of the organizing Committee of Garda Endurance Cup, the company which hosted the sporting event at the feet of the picturesque castle in Valeggio sul Mincio, has largely come true.

The special edition of the FEI World Championships Young Horses 2013 gave the thousands of people who rushed to the splendid Parco Giardino Sigurtà from Thursday to Saturday authentic, electrifying emotions...

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http://www.horsereporter.com/?p=8009

Sheikh Mohammed: Swiss Federation questions inquiry

A leading equestrian federation has questioned the independence of a probe into Sheikh Mohammed's equine business.

Former London police chief Lord Stevens was called in by the sheikh's wife to oversee an internal inquiry after illegal veterinary drugs were seized from a stables and private jet.

Sheikh Mohammed is the world's biggest owner of racehorses, but the latest questions focus on endurance racing.

The Swiss federation's Claude Nordmann would prefer an external investigation.

[More ...]

International Equestrian Federation to introduce injury surveillance system over allegations of horse deaths

Telegraph.co.uk - Full Article

The governing body of equestrian sport has pledged to introduce an injury surveillance system (ISS) this autumn in response to allegations that dozens of horses die each season while competing in Middle East endurance racing.

By Pippa Cuckson
10:00PM BST 01 Oct 2013

Following lobbying from European federations, who have observed a link between endurance racing in the Middle East and stress fractures, the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has decided to monitor injuries more closely.
In Europe and North America, endurance racing is slower paced but the Middle Eastern sport often produces average speeds of 26kph on 160 kilometre (100 mile) championship tier rides.

Last year, a study in the British Veterinary Journal highlighted injury-inducing averages of 35kph in the last 15-20km of the straighter, flatter desert tracks.

Two recent seizures of unlicensed drugs – one in Newmarket in August and the other on a private jet at Stansted in May – were both linked to Sheikh Mohammed, the world’s ­leading racehorse owner and current endurance world champion.
They included extensive anti-inflammatories and analgesics which Swiss equestrian federation president Charles Trolliet, also a vet, described as the “classic endurance cocktail”...

Read more here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/10348317/International-Equestrian-Federation-to-introduce-injury-surveillance-system-over-allegations-of-horse-deaths.html

Sheikh Mohammed under further scrutiny as trainer banned for doping continues to work in his Dubai stables

Telegraph.co.uk - Full Article

Sheikh Mohammed has opened himself up to further embarrassment following news that a former trainer who was banned for doping continues to work at Dubai stables owned by the Godolphin boss.

By Telegraph Sport
5:30PM BST 01 Oct 2013

Mubarak bin-Shafya was banned from endurance racing for two years in 2011 after several of his horses tested positive for stanozolol.

However, that has not prevented him from training thoroughbreds from the Al Aasfa Stables, owned by the Sheikh, near Dubai City.

And while there is no suggestion Sheikh Mohammed is involved in wrongdoing, the ongoing link with Bin Shafya, who is also a former colleague of disgraced Godolphin trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni, will cast yet further suspicion on the endurance horse operation.

More than 20 endurance horses trained in Dubai at stables owned variously by Sheikh Mohammed and other senior members of the Maktoum family have been involved in doping cases since 2005.

According to publicly available archives, 16 of the horses tested positive in competition to natural or manufactured steroids...

Read more here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/horseracing/10346444/Sheikh-Mohammed-under-further-scrutiny-as-trainer-banned-for-doping-continues-to-work-in-his-Dubai-stables.html

Sheik Mohammed suffers more shame as Dubai drug scandal grows

Dailymail.co.uk - Full Article

By MARCUS TOWNEND
PUBLISHED: 16:48 EST, 1 October 2013

Further embarrassment has been heaped on Sheik Mohammed with confirmation that another horse trained at stables he owns has tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid.

The Federation for Equestrian Sport yesterday confirmed a hearing is pending after the discovery of 17-Hydroxyprogesterone Hexanoate — an anabolic steroid banned in male horses — in Orman De Cardonne.

The 11-year-old, ridden by Mohammed Ali Al Shafar and trained at Al Reef stables, tested positive after winning the President of the UAE Endurance Cup in Abu Dhabi on February 16. The case is yet to be submitted to tribunal.

Read more here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-2440411/Sheik-Mohammed-suffers-shame-Dubai-drug-scandal-grows.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Italy: French riders steal the show

Khaleejtimes.com - Full Article

Hisham Al Gizouli / 30 September 2013

French riders scooped the gold and bronze medals of the FEI 120km World Championship for Young Horses, Garda Endurance Cup at the Garda Lake, Italy on Saturday.
Aurelien Rocchia, astride Secret De Mon Coeur crossed the finish line first, followed in by Yebra Al Timiras, representing Spain, aboard Espoir De Bozouls while Laurent Mosti, riding Doria De Jansavis claimed the bronze medal for the French contingent. Doria De Janasavis itself was also named the Best Condition Horse.

Rocchia held on very strongly when he was attacked on the line by the Spanish rider to cover the distance in 6 hours, 10 minutes and 37 seconds at an average speed of 19. 427km/hr.

The race was held under the directives of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, as part of the Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival and has attracted 65 riders representing 12 countries from UAE, Italy, France, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Oman and elsewhere...

Read more here:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/sport/inside_sport.asp?xfile=/data/nationsports/2013/September/nationsports_September292.xml§ion=nationsports

Great Britain: BHA is too quick to insist drug seizures nothing to do with racing

Theguardian.com - Full Article

Greg Wood
The Guardian, Sunday 29 September 2013 17.24 EDT

Sheikh Mohammed's endurance horse operation comes under scrutiny after drugs seized from Dubai government jet

When it emerged earlier this month that 124 illegally imported veterinary products had been seized in a raid at a property in Newmarket owned by the world's most powerful racehorse owner, the British Horseracing Authority appeared adamant it had nothing to do with them.

"This is a matter for Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which conducted the raid]," a BHA spokesman said. "In the view of Defra, there is no link between the seizure and the racing industry and the products were not intended for use on thoroughbreds."

Even then, it seemed quite casual, not least in the context of the Godolphin doping scandal which broke in April.

The horses which were found to have been doped with anabolic steroids by Mahmood al-Zarooni, including Encke, a Classic winner, are still serving their six-month bans from the sport. The account given by the BHA, which ejected Zarooni from racing with what felt like extraordinary speed a few days after the first positive tests at his stable, offers a vague and scarcely credible account of how he could have acquired industrial quantities of banned steroids.

Nor has it produced a satisfactory explanation of how he then managed, with the help of three junior staff, to dope at least 22 of his horses, and probably more, on a near-daily basis without anyone else realising what was happening. Zarooni did all this, apparently, while also spending all but a few days of the winter in Dubai.

Now, as it becomes clear that the structures and accountability in Sheikh Mohammed's endurance horse operation leave a lot to be desired, the BHA's breezy dismissal of any possible link with the racing side of the Sheikh's equine interests appears unwise at best...

Read more here:
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/sep/29/bha-sheikh-mohammed-drugs