Qatar NEAR Race Program Continues in Belgium

Heritage Arabian Race will be run 20 July

logo et AHRCB, grand2 June 2015, Belgium  ~ The Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) has confirmed their sponsorship of the Qatar NEAR program with the Arabian Horse Racing Club of Belgium (AHRCB) for the 2015-2016 season.QNEARBanner

Nelly Philippot, Chairwoman of AHRCB said, “We are happy that we can continue to offer these races to our local breeders, owners and trainers to encourage them to improve the quality of our racing horses. At the request of QREC, these races will no longer be run after the initial very restrictive conditions.”

The first Qatar NEAR race will be on 29 June for three- year-olds. The second Qatar NEAR-race will be run during the fall (early October)

HARC racing

Philippot continued: “On the 20th of July, on the prestigious race day in Ostend, a first edition of a HARC will be staged. The Heritage Arabian Racing Club (HARC) has recently been started with the aim to promote racing for horses of old pedigrees, containing no infusion of blood of unproven ancestry.”

* Definition of the HARC horse below.

“As the classical Arabian horse is a stayer rather than a sprinter, we obviously would like to stage a 2400m or longer-race, but, as we will probably have to race the 3-year olds and older horses together, the distance cannot be too long. So, the distance will be either 1800 or 2100m for the first race.”

The prize-money will for the HARC race is €17,000 spread over the first five horses to finish.

The track at Ostend is turf with an ultra-modern sprinkling-system keeping the turf in perfect condition. The expected crowd for the day is over 10,000. Travel incentives are available with a maximum of 300 euro per horse.

More information: [email protected]
By mobile : +32 / 496 304 401

* APPROVED DEFINITION OF A HARC RACEHORSE

Extract from Minutes of inaugural meeting 28th February 2015 – Finally the following proposal was made and unanimously accepted. Definition of a HARC horse will be: “In order to preserve the classic characteristics of the purebred Arabian horse, it has been agreed that a HARC (Heritage Arabian Racing Club) horse is any purebred Arabian registered in any WAHO accepted stud book and it must not contain the blood of the following stallions in any generation of its pedigree. Stallions excluded: Amer, Baroud III, Burning Sand, Dragon, St Laurent, Tiwaiq.” Other horses may be added if considered necessary after formal agreement by the Club Management Committee and agreement at an AGM. Such horses will remain pending until they are approved.”

 ~ends