With Qipco and the President of the UAE Cup series receiving increasingly wider coverage in Britain, Dubai stepped up its involvement in British racing Tuesday when it announced it would sponsor the inaugural Future Champions Day at Newmarket.
Ascot racecourse was awarded England's Champions Day from Newmarket and rebranded it for this season under the auspices of Qipco, the Qatari investment company. Newmarket's end-of-season card has thus been rejigged, but the centrepiece remains the Dubai Dewhurst stakes, the Group 1 contest for juveniles that was won by Frankel last season.
The Middle Park Stakes has been assimilated on to the Future Champions Day card, a race which was won last year by Dream Ahead, who beat Strong Suit, now owned by Qatar Bloodstock, by nine lengths.
The race, formerly sponsored by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid's Shadwell Farm, now will be supported by Emaar, the Dubai-based property company.
"Dubai Future Champions Day is an exciting new concept for juveniles, showcasing the best of their generation," said John Ferguson, the bloodstock adviser to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
"Sheikh Mohammed has a long affiliation with Newmarket racecourses, and Dubai Future Champions Day is reflective of his continued support to the industry."
Elsewhere, the weights for the Melbourne Cup were unveiled yesterday and last year's victor, Americain, has been allotted the top weight of 58kg for the November 1 race.
The six year old, trained by the Frenchman Alain de Royer Dupre, bids to become the second horse in the last 30 years to carry such an impost, after Makybe Diva did so when winning her third cup in 2005.
sports@thenational.ae
