New carnival in Dubai

The Emirates Racing Association have announced a number of changes to the racing programme in Dubai for the 2002/3 season.

A new Dubai Racing Carnival is to be introduced to provide a seven week build up to the Dubai World Cup, along with a new Super Saturday fixture and the inauguration of the Dubai Triple Crown.

The Racing Carnival will start with the second round of the Maktoum Challenge on February 13 and end with the Dubai World Cup card on March 29 and every meeting will feature a Pattern race.

The Super Saturday card will be staged on March 8 and will feature seven Pattern race events, each mirroring a race on the Dubai World Cup card.

The third round of the Maktoum Challenge, a Group Three contest, will be the lead in for the World Cup while the Group Three Dubai City of Gold and the Jebel Hatta are the lead ins for the Dubai Sheema Classic and Dubai Duty Free respectively.

The Dubai Triple Crown will be made up of three races for three-year-olds at increasing distances of 200 metres.

The UAE 2000 Guineas over 1,600m is the first of the races on February 13, followed by the Al Bastikiya (1,800m) on March 8 and the 2,000 metre UAE Derby on March 29.

The changes are joint initiative between the Dubai Racing Club and the Dubai World Cup and they hope the new events will attract international interest.

Al Khamis Al Jafleh, chairman of the Dubai Racing Club said: ‘‘The Dubai Racing Carnival is the next step in the exciting future of racing in the United Arab Emirates.

‘‘For seven weeks the very best horses will be on show and we hope to attract as much international competition as we can to Nad Al Sheba.’’

Emirate Racing Association chief executive Les Benton added: ‘‘It promises to be an exciting period in the Emirates. We aim to market and promote this internationally to entice trainers and owners to bring their horses to Dubai.

‘‘There are options available for all types of horses and we encourage international competition.’’