Dubai: The HH Shaikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival will continue to offer exciting opportunities to aspiring Emirati sportswomen.

Speaking after the successful hosting of the HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak World Ladies Championship and Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup at the Hippodrome de Toulouse in France, Lara Sawaya, director of the Festival and chairman of the Ladies Racing Committee in the International Federation of Arabian Horse Racing Authority (IFAHR) said, “I don’t think things could be better”.

“We are truly obliged to HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Mother of the UAE, for her great initiative and support to the women of the UAE and the world at large. We will be taking seven UAE girls with us to compete in Portugal, and the best five finishers out of them will proceed to London to take part in the HH Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Endurance CEIO Cup on June 1.”

Sawaya also highlighted the achievements of the twin races at Toulouse.

“Toulouse is another great success for the HH Shaikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival, which is growing bigger and bigger thanks to the directives of Shaikh Mansoor,” she said.

“The festival has also broken new ground by staging the Wathba Stud Farm Cup races in Slovakia for the first time, to become the first-ever Arabian event to be hosted by that country. And this season, we have a very busy schedule which features, over and above the races and the World Arabian Horse Conference in London, five endurance contests scattered around the old continent under the umbrella of the festival,” Sawaya added.

“These include the CEI Atolerios Portugal, the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Endurance CEIO Cup, the 120km ** Open Endurance Cup in Italy, the Compiegne France Festival, the HH Shaikh Mansoor Festival Endurance Cup for Arabian Horses Ridden Endurance 100km * in London and the World Championship Horses in Slovakia 2014,”