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2022 Gulf Festival Special A New Era For UK Arabian Racing
ARO CEO Genny Haynes presents Tom Marquand with the 2021 HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Cup winning jockeys trophy for his ride on Bayan Athbah The Arabian Racehorse (TAR) speaks with the Arabian Racing Organisation’s (ARO) Chief Executive Officer, Genny Haynes (GH) about the new era in UK Arabian racing and her thoughts on the forthcoming Festivals in Qatar and Saudi Arabia which she will be attending. TAR - It’s been a difficult couple of years for UK Arabian racing with Equine Flu, Brexit, Covid and the sad loss of ARO Patron HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and yet ARO has survived. There has been an inevitable contraction of UK racing, however the current provisional raceplan shows an expansion in race numbers, do you feel ARO is turning a corner now?
GH - Despite all of the above, on a positive it has given ARO the time to reflect on its current working model, and therefore we’ve been able to re-evaluate its position as a brand in Arabian racing. It has certainly brought to the fore how vulnerable as an organisation we are (as I am sure other organisations, not just in racing, are experiencing coming through Covid). It’s also shown that certain changes have been required and still need to be made for Arabian racing in the UK to continue. TAR - ARO was an early adopter of the Equine MediRecord system in 2019, how did that help Arabian racing through this period?
THE ARABIAN RACEHORSE
