HARC Championship caps successful season finale at Huntingdon, UK
27 September 2017, Huntingdon race course, UK ~ The UK Arabian racing Season Finale saw LB Farrah and Teresa Gavin claim their second Heritage Arabian Racing Club (HARC) UK Championship on 23 September 2017, with a run over two miles in the HARC Handicap Conditions race at Huntingdon racecourse.
Facing a field of 10 runners, the pair finished six lengths clear of Kallista, with Windsor’s HARC winner, Top Trip, half a length away in third.
LB Farrah (Sambist x Simeon Safira), owned, trained, and ridden by Gavin, won the first HARC race of the 2017 season, a conditions event over a mile at Taunton and has twice been placed in handicaps over the summer, before returning to HARC company for her final win of the year.
Gavin commented: “I’m absolutely delighted LB Farrah has been crowned Champion UK HARC Horse for the second consecutive year. She has come on again from her success last year and although she has always been a quirky mare, she has always thrived on her work. I feel this season she has noticeably matured and grown stronger again too.
“I couldn’t be more proud of her for winning the HARC race at Huntingdon, she has never run over two miles before, but I knew she would give everything she had. I am extremely grateful to the sponsors for establishing this series of races.”
There was further HARC success at Huntingdon, as Insignia (Istfahan x Waterlily), won the first race on the card, the Friends of Arabian Racing Memorial (0-40) Handicap. He had opened his account in the HARC Maiden at Wolverhampton in June and had also been second to Top Trip at Windsor in a HARC Handicap race last month. Trained by ARO Champion Trainer James Owen for his parents (and Insignia’s breeders), Jenny and Herbie Owen, Insignia was a close runner-up in the overall HARC horse championship.
Gemma Cobb, the out-going ARO Racing Operations Executive said: “It was a great finish to the season at Huntingdon and we are pleased with the way that HARC has been embraced by our owners and trainers. We ended the season with 17 horses registered. LB Farrah and Insignia were dual winners, whilst Kallista (HARC Championship 3rd) and Top Trip (HARC Championship 4th) won a race a piece.”
ARO Director Genny Haynes commented: “We thank HH Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Heritage Arabian Racing Club for their series of races. 2017 has been our most successful in terms of the number of Purebred Arabian entries and declarations in all our races for some time and we look forward to building on this seasons’ success next year.”