Paul Simmons’ Kallista, trained by Peter Hammersley and ridden by Steve Harrison, became the first Heritage Arabian Racing Club (HARC) approved horse to win in the 2016 UK Arabian Racing Organisation (ARO) season. She won the Royal Cavalry of Oman (0-55) Handicap stakes over 7 furlongs at Chelmsford City racecourse by three quarters of a length from Jamaahir, with another HARC approved runner, Norseman, a further one and a half lengths away in third.
The six year old mare has improved greatly on her debut season when she was fourth twice from five starts, by finishing second at Taunton over a mile and a quarter in May, and now breaking her maiden at the ninth attempt. She is by the now deceased Russian stallion Sambist, out of GAS Pepelka, and was bred in Britain by Gadebrook Stud.
Her delighted owner Simmons commented.”It’s great to see Kallista win. She is a talented mare and we all think a lot of her. It was a fantastic ride from Steve and hopefully this win will boost her confidence. She hasn’t been the most consistent horse, but Pete has done a great job with her, and hopefully she can build on this success. It’s great for her to be the UK’s first HARC winner this season, whilst she is also the first straight Russian winner in the UK since 2010; I am a strong supporter of this great scheme and two of my five horses in training are HARC approved.”
ARO Racing Manager Amanda Smith said.”We are really pleased for Paul as he has been a stalwart of British Arabian racing and breeding for many years. The HARC scheme is doing exactly what we hoped it would, encouraging the small owner/breeder to stay in the sport, and we hope to see more success for HARC horses during the rest of the 2016 season. HH Sheikh Sultan’s vision and generosity in establishing this scheme is a welcome addition to our grass-roots program, for which we are all extremely grateful.”
~ Text and photo by Debbie Burt