IFAHR General Assembly Meeting Notes by Kathy Smoke

IFAHR General Assembly Meeting, Paris, 5 October 2015

IFAHR12 October 2015, Paris, France ~ IFAHR General Assembly 2015 was held on 5 October, at Le Meridien Etoile in Paris with 23 nationalities represented. New strategic goals were presented for the coming years and Italy was elected as a new member.

  • The official minutes of the meeting will be forthcoming from Secretary Mr. Mats Genberg.
  • The meeting was well attended and it was noted that there were presently 28 countries that are IFAHR members.
  • The USA was represented by delegate Kathy Smoke President of the Arabian Jockey Club with Michelle Morgan of the Arabian Racing Cup as observer. Each country is allowed one voting delegate and one observer at the GA meeting.
  • Highlights of the meeting agenda were the IFAHR International Agreement status as of Feb 5, 2015. 13 countries had submitted their informational response to the 10 Article agreement: 7 countries were under discussion regarding the articles and no response had been received from 8 countries.
  • The secretary noted the Agreement would be published but a definitive date was not given at this time.
  • The Executive Committee met prior to the GA meeting to discuss Strategic Objectives related to the ongoing role played by IFAHR. The secretary presented a power point presentation to the General Assembly defining the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESS, OPPORTUNITY AND THREATS to the organization.
  • IFAHR will invest in its own staff and office to continue data entry to the new website that is currently in development. The full result database from the past 10 years will be available on the new site. Each country was encouraged to participate by sending race results to IFAHR. The ability for everyone to get complete FORM on any race horse around the world was stressed.
  • Encouraging members to be more proactive by timely publishing race calendars and contacts for each countries racing organization is important. Providing a list from each country of members, owners, and trainers is important. Bringing in new owners, breeders and countries is also an objective to be worked on.
  • Italy was voted in as a new member.
  • Ms. Lara Sawaya spoke regarding the Global Festival and its impact around the world. The World Arabian Racing Conference will be held in Rome, Italy in 2016. The first €1.2 million Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Crown Jewel stakes will be held 8 November 2015 in Abu Dhabi.The USA has 4 horses that have received invitations to run: Paddy’s Day, RB Frynch Broad, RB Rich and So Big Is Better.
  • Some countries had not yet submitted horses for consideration for the Crown Jewel but did so during this meeting as there was some misunderstanding regarding submission deadlines. The final list of all horses given an invitation will be released by the Global Festival.

Respectfully, Kathy Smoke