Bloodaxe Bombardier
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Has anyone seen this article by Pippa Cuckson in this weeks magazine?
I know endurance has a terrible reputation for cheating and welfare abuses abroad, particularly in the UAE, but it seems it's now happening right here on British soil.
Apparently a rider who was not FEI registered, had never competed at FEI level before, who knows if he'd ever even sat on a horse before, was allowed at the last minute to start an FEI 3* rated 100 mile endurance race at Euston Park in Suffolk on 5 August. Can you imagine a novice, unregistered rider being allowed to hop on a strange horse the morning of the cross country at Blenheim and being allowed to start?
If all that wasn't bad enough, not only was the rider not registered or eligible for the race, the horse he rode, HS Jamal, who is owned by experienced British FEI rider Lauren Mills, wasn't entered into the event originally. All entries should be in two weeks before the ride but even a day or so before HS Jamal was not on the official start list. All horses competing at Euston Park wear an electronic timing tag but there was no reference to him on the electronic timing system so presumably he was allowed to start without a timing tag, another huge rule breach. Why would an experienced owner like Lauren Mills allow a complete stranger, and a novice rider to boot, to ride their horse at the highest level of competition?
Nick Brooks-Ward of Hpower who organise the Euston Park rides for Meydan (one of the business arms of Sh Mohammed Al Maktoum) said it was an administrative oversight and that shortly after the start of the race the error was realised and the rider was stopped on course. No harm done. But how on earth could it have happened in the first place? Last minute entries of rider and horse - no one thinking to check? A novice rider amongst fit and fast arab racehorses at the start of a race? If he'd got out of control he could have caused chaos and injury to other horses and riders.
How could an experienced organiser like the Brooks-Ward family and HPower let something like this happen? Is there any connection between the fact that this rider was riding round the course with one of Sh Mohammed's sons, that the Euston Park events are paid for by the Maktoums, and that the electronic timing system is built and run by a Dubai company?
I know endurance has a terrible reputation for cheating and welfare abuses abroad, particularly in the UAE, but it seems it's now happening right here on British soil.
Apparently a rider who was not FEI registered, had never competed at FEI level before, who knows if he'd ever even sat on a horse before, was allowed at the last minute to start an FEI 3* rated 100 mile endurance race at Euston Park in Suffolk on 5 August. Can you imagine a novice, unregistered rider being allowed to hop on a strange horse the morning of the cross country at Blenheim and being allowed to start?
If all that wasn't bad enough, not only was the rider not registered or eligible for the race, the horse he rode, HS Jamal, who is owned by experienced British FEI rider Lauren Mills, wasn't entered into the event originally. All entries should be in two weeks before the ride but even a day or so before HS Jamal was not on the official start list. All horses competing at Euston Park wear an electronic timing tag but there was no reference to him on the electronic timing system so presumably he was allowed to start without a timing tag, another huge rule breach. Why would an experienced owner like Lauren Mills allow a complete stranger, and a novice rider to boot, to ride their horse at the highest level of competition?
Nick Brooks-Ward of Hpower who organise the Euston Park rides for Meydan (one of the business arms of Sh Mohammed Al Maktoum) said it was an administrative oversight and that shortly after the start of the race the error was realised and the rider was stopped on course. No harm done. But how on earth could it have happened in the first place? Last minute entries of rider and horse - no one thinking to check? A novice rider amongst fit and fast arab racehorses at the start of a race? If he'd got out of control he could have caused chaos and injury to other horses and riders.
How could an experienced organiser like the Brooks-Ward family and HPower let something like this happen? Is there any connection between the fact that this rider was riding round the course with one of Sh Mohammed's sons, that the Euston Park events are paid for by the Maktoums, and that the electronic timing system is built and run by a Dubai company?
