Last year’s winners back for Australia’s HH Sheikh Mansoor Festival races
24 January 2015, Melbourne, Australia ~ The wait for the opening day of the 2015 racing season at Sportingbet Park, Sandown in Melbourne, has been highly anticipated. The HH Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, which is being staged by NARA Australia and The Melbourne Racing Club, will kick start action on Monday, January 26 with two of its most important Purebred Arabian racing series.
Adding to the excitement is the fact that the winners of the 2014 Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup as well as the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Championship race in Australia will be back to defend their 2014 winning runs.
The quality field of seven runners in the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup includes the Christine Wilcox-trained Aqaba Brown Dirt Cowboy, winner of the 2014 leg under Katie Spalding. Katie will be back on Aqaba Brown Dirt Cowboy and will guide the 10-year-old in her attempt to make back-to-back victories in this most prestigious Purebred Arabian race here in Australia.
The winner of the 2014 HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Championship race was Conderosa Millenium Silver under British lady jockey Alyson Deniel. On Monday the Con Bouzianis –trained Conderosa Millenium Silver will be partnered by Hungarian lady jockey Edina Toth.
A repeat win on the 14-year-old Conderosa Millenium Silver will give the Hungarian jockey a place in the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Championship finale in Abu Dhabi on 8 November 2015. Among the eight others in the fray for the ladies race is another strong contender in Warrawee Naaziq. The 11-year-old has already been a winner in the HH Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival and will be partnered by Irish lady jockey Nadine Forde.
Draw Ladies Race:[gview file=”https://horsereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ladies-race-facebook-sandown-26-jan-2015.pdf”]
Draw: Sheikh Zayed Cup: [gview file=”https://horsereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Sheikh-Zayed-race-sandown-26-jan-2015.pdf”]
“The HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Championship race will be the first of the two Festival races here in Australia and this is the second race in the 2015 series after Oman where Swedish lady jockey Josefin Landgren came up on top,” said Ms Lara Sawaya, Chairman of the International Federation of Horse Racing Academies (IFHRA), Executive Director of the HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, Chairman of Ladies & Apprentice Racing Committees in the International Federation of Arabian Horse Racing Authorities (IFAHR).
“The Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup will be run after the Ladies race and we are delighted that the defending champions of both the races will be back in action on Monday,” Ms Sawaya said.
“It is a privilege that the two races of the HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival are part of the Sportingbet Park racecourse’s opening race meet of 2015 and we are looking forward to some exciting action on the tracks,” she added.
The race will be streamed live on air and online via the web TV www.sheikhmansoorfestival.com.