It was the fourth race in the Wathba Cup series after three events in The Netherlands and Gazel T won the 1730-metre race fimishing ahead of the Michal Romanowski-trained Pentagon from Denmark while Gunter Richter’s Ameretto was third. A total of 14 horses started in the Euros 16,492 race for Purebred Arabians and a lrge crowd of fans watched the fascinating tussle among the runners, a press release said.

The Wathba Stud Farm Cup race series is part of the Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival and is staged around the world to help and support Purebred Arabian racing. “It is fantastic to see how international Arabian racing has become, much with the aid of this festival. At this race in Sweden we saw horses from 5 countries and jockeys from Italy, Sweden, Panama, Chile, Germany and Brazil!,” said Mats Genberg, Director of the Swedish Jockey Club.

Exciting, high quality race “It was a truly exciting and high quality race that may very well stand a chance of being upgraded to Group 2 PA in the coming year,” he added.

Ms Lara Sawaya, Director of the Shaikh Mansour Festival and Head of IFAHR Ladies Racing said, “Purebred Arabian racing has received a huge boost in Sweden thanks to the Festival and the strong field and quality of runners reflects this success.”

The Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Flat Racing Festival is organized by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority and co-ordinated by Abu Dhabi Sports Council in association with Emirates Arabian Horse Society and IFAHR, supported by General Authority for Youth and Sports and Fegentri.