Great racing on the horizon as the Qatar Goodwood Festival is looked forward to

Goodwood Racecourse staged the Qatar Goodwood Festival Press Launch at the rooftop of the Grange St Paul Hotel in London on Monday, July 16.

Nasser Bin Sherida al-Kaabi, Qatar Racing & Equestrian Club (QREC) General Manager, connections of several leading contenders for the top prizes at the Qatar Goodwood Festival, plus personnel from Goodwood Racecourse were present and spoke about their hopes for the five-day spectacular, which runs from Tuesday, July 31st through to Saturday, August 4 inclusive.

Nasser Bin Sherida al Kaabi, General Manager of the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club, which is behind Qatar’s sponsorship of the Goodwood Festival, declared: “British racing is a love for Qataris and Goodwood Racecourse is one of our major partners. We look forward every year to the Qatar Goodwood Festival – the horses and the people attending are very important to us.

“We are very pleased with what the Duke of Richmond and his team have done for us over the years – they have been a great help and we are very happy with the Qatar Goodwood Festival.

“We carry the flag of Qatar all around the world and the horses and everyone connected with the horses are very important to us.

“For example, we have very pleased with the progress made by Tip Two Win. He won twice in Qatar and has run well afterwards. He is a small horse, but has the heart of a lion. European horses have done well in Doha and it is great for us when they return and do well in Europe. We will send an official invitation for Tip Two Win to come back to Qatar in December.”

Alex Eade, General Manager of Goodwood Racecourse, reflected: “This is the fourth Qatar Goodwood Festival and it feels to me that it is properly established as one of the highlights of the Flat season, something we always hoped for.

“The entries are particularly strong this year, which includes an open Qatar Sussex Stakes with plenty of horses snapping at Without Parole’s heels and we start the week with an open-looking Qatar Goodwood Cup headed by Stradivarius.

Alison Lidderdale of ARO, which is responsible for staging the Qatar International Stakes for Purebred Arabians, worth £400,000, on Wednesday, August 1, said: “: “The Qatar Goodwood Festival is possibly the biggest platform we have as an organisation for demonstrating what we are trying to do, which is bring the Arabian Racing Organisation on to the same level as the rest of the world. We are the only country in the world that doesn’t recognise the Arabian racehorse in the same way and we are very keen for the BHA to acknowledge that.

“The BHA are listening to us and moving forwards. It is a slow process and it is something that I am trying manoeuvre and change. I am very hopeful that in the very near future we will see something positive. We were and still around proud to partner with Goodwood. It is such a prestigious racecourse and it has been a brilliant ride. When we started two years ago our liquidity wasn’t phenomenal and now we are up there. I am proud of the product we have now and proud to be alongside Goodwood.”