H.H. Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival

Twelve jockeys to fight for honours in first flat-race for females

Purebred Arabian racing on focus as season gets under way
Women all set for big race day

By M. Satya Narayan, Chief Sports Reporter, Gulf News, October 30, 2011

Abu Dhabi: Twelve women jockeys including Ladies Fegentri Cup World champion Tina Henriksson were introduced to the media ahead of today's Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies IFAHR Cup — the UAE's first flat-race for female jockeys.

Sweden's Henricksson is joined by Holland's Jadey Pietrasiewicz, Switzerland's Catherine Burri, American Sandee Beattie, Ireland's Rachael Blackmore, Italian Elisabetta Marcialis, and France's Sandrine Hagenbach, Germany's Berit Webber, Britain's Emma Sayer with the UAE's Shathra Al Hajjaj, Oman's Fatima Al Manji and Qatar's Khadija Al Bastaki being the three Arab women in the race.

Lara Sawaya, director of the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival, said during a press conference at the Emirates Palace Hotel: "The opening race meeting at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club brings the curtain down on the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup and the Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Cup races for the season and also kick-starts the new season's Wathba Stud Farm Cup."

New countries
"We had a total number of 51 global races in the season that has just gone by and the Shaikh Mansour Festival will stage 74 global races in 2011-2012. Australia, Belgium and Morocco are the new countries which will be visited by the Festival."

Giving details of the Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies IFAHR Cup, IFAHR President Sami Al Boenain said, "The Her Highness Shaikha IFAHR Cup is not taking anything away from the Ladies Fegentri Cup. It has been designed to cater to the young women jockeys of the region who find the Ladies Fegentri Cup and its World Cup highly competitive."

"This new series of races will be a supporting element and will be complementary to the Fegentri Cup and hopefully it will give more opportunity to lady jockeys from the region and around the world," the IFAHR chief stated.

Abeer Kermestji, representing the UAE General Women's Union, said: "The fact that nine countries have come forward to stage the Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies IFAHR Cup reflects the importance of this event and we thank Her Highness Shaikha Fatima (Head of the General Women's Union) for this vision and support for women of the region."