Goodwood, England// For the next five days all eyes in Europe will be trained on the 35 races that will be staged on this unique racecourse perched high up on the Sussex Downs near England’s south coast.
Qatar’s sponsorship of the Goodwood Festival has resulted in an inflated prize-money pool that has soared to nearly £5 million (Dh24m) across the week, with the clash on Wednesday between the English, French and Irish 2,000 Guineas winners in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes set to be the highlight of the week.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Awtaad bids to get his career back on track after he went out on his shield on soft ground to Galileo Gold, the winner of the English equivalent, and The Gurkha in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
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The Minister of Finance's Awtaad is the highest-rated horse to run in the silks of a UAE-based owner across the week, but in terms of numbers it is Godolphin that once again carry the standard.
The racing stable of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is stacked, with around 60 individual runners set to take their chances across.
This muscle-flexing can be seen to good effect in Tuesday’s Lennox Stakes, a race pushing hard to be upgraded from Group 2 level to become Britain’s only top-flight 1,400-metre contest.
The Royal Blue colours will be carried by favourite Home Of The Brave, who attempts to back up his recent wins at Haydock and Leicester for Hugo Palmer. Dutch Connection will be saddled by Charlie Hills in an effort to post his first win since the Jersey Stakes last year, while Birchwood is also seeking a return to the winner’s enclosure following his victory in a Listed event at Chester this month for Richard Fahey.
Joining the Godolphin trio will be Markaz, Owen Burrows’s Group 3 winner owned by Sheikh Hamdan; Buckstay, a handicapper running in the colours of the Dubai-based businessman Jim Hay and his wife Fitri, and Dream Dubai for Meydan’s Malih Al Basti. Palmer also runs Gifted Master for Dr Ali Ridha.
With the sun set high in the sky for the past week, the going at the switchback racecourse is currently good to firm.
“They’ll both like the ground and I’ve been happy with both of them in their work,” Palmer said.
“Home Of The Brave is in great form and seven furlongs is his ideal trip, as it is for Gifted Master.
“We just felt the ground at Ascot was too soft for him [Gifted Master], so hopefully he can bounce back.
“There’s not a lot between them.”
In the Group 2 Vintage Stakes for juveniles, Godolphin also run Boyton against Coolmore’s War Decree, the colt he beat in the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket this month.
Boynton is a huge and gutsy son of American sire More Than Ready and will be another who will appreciate the quick conditions. He will be ridden this time by James Doyle, but it was Adam Kirby who was on board last time and he is most taken by the twice-raced colt.
“He’s very tough, I like him. He’s a relentless galloper,” Kirby said.
“I think he’s a bit special. He lengthened all the way to the line when the runner-up came to him and I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be a Guineas horse.”
It might be a bright start to the week for the UAE in this little corner of England.
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Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Scores:
Day 4
England 290 & 346
Sri Lanka 336 & 226-7 (target 301)
Sri Lanka require another 75 runs with three wickets remaining
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The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
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Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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Europe’s rearming plan
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Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
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Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
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