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The Arabian Horse Racing Club of Belgium

Some concerns for the future of Arab Racing Nelly Philippot At the end of an interesting race-season, and after over 10 years of

Some concerns for the future of Arab Racing Nelly Philippot At the end of an interesting race-season, and after over 10 years of observation of the evolution of Arab racing in Belgium and the neighbouring countries, I feel concerned by some of my observations. It becomes more and more difficult, not to admit impossible, to get sponsoring for our races within our countries. Very fortunately, sponsors from the Middle-East, in particular the U.A.E. Equestrian and Racing Federation of Abu Dhabi are regular and generous in helping us in that field. Nevertheless I am very scared upon this extreme dependency upon one single source of financing our races … Horses move around between countries and are often trained in other countries than their owners live in. This situation induces a lose of contact and control over the training by the owner, allowing abuses of different types. Having always been in favour of international exchanges, AHRCB has organised, during the annual President of the U.A.E. International Race-days, probably the most international races of Europe. Over the years, we had representatives of over 15 countries ( Be, Fr, Ger, GB, UAE, Qa, Sw, Rus, Dk, Cz, Sp, Nl, CH, It, Pol …), who travelled to come and win our major races. It is therefore very difficult to make proper statistics allowing to evaluate the evolution of the quality of the Belgian participants and I am scared some Belgian participants loose their motivation and hence their interest in racing. Despite our efforts, the increase in numbers of Belgian race-enthusiasts remains small. When observing the stat’s of the sires, it is obvious that the French top-sires dominate more and more the racing-scene, also in Belgium. Whereas this for sure improves the speed during the races and the quality of the fields and thus the quality of the races, it is obvious that partaking with a “normal” Arabian horse, makes no longer sense. This makes it even more difficult to attract new participants. Seeing that the off-springs of the six “most successful” sires share between them over 70% of the prize-money, whereas they only represent 40% of the different horses taking part ( and even far less of the number of starts), bothers me. Indeed, why should a breeder mate his mares to anything else than the most successful sires ….??!! But, what are we going to breed next, for indeed, most of these sires are interrelated very closely ??? I remain concerned about the short-range of this breeding policy and the in-breeding we are heading for !! Is it really desirable to select within the Arabian breed, a sub-breed so specialised for only one of the several athletic aptitudes every Arab horse still had, not so long ago? Should not racing be a tool for better breeding of Arab horses in the athletic polyvalence they were selected for during centuries, rather than being an aim in itself, only to the glory of its owner? The authentic Arabian was fast and enduring, with the beauty and nobility induced by the semi-desert environment. Flat racing is the test one can impinge on a horse at younger age than the other sports : rather straight lines preserving the joints, over soft going preserving from extreme concussions and with lightweight riders aboard …and could thus be the first performance-test for the future athlete. Aren’t we degenerating our noble horses to become specialised short-distance racing-machines? Haven’t the breeders of the Thoroughbred worked after these criterion before us ? What is the interest of starting anew a selection along the same lines as what other breeders have been doing for over 3 centuries and that resulted in a breed known as the Thoroughbred ??? I really wonder …..

- Mrs. Nelly Philippot , Posted on 31 December 2005