Purebred Arabian (PA) racing will be further integrated into British racing in 2020, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and The Arabian Racing Organisation (ARO) jointly announced on Wednesday. The aim is to more closely align PA regulatory practices with Thoroughbred racing and follows approval from British racing's executive committee and the BHA Board. The phased implementation (12-18 months) will be funded by the ARO and the Racing Foundation.
The BHA already approves fixture lists and PA racing regulations, as well as providing integrity services on premier PA cards and any PA races on Thoroughbred cards. As part of the integration, more regulatory procedures will be changed to the Thoroughbred standard with the exact scope of the changes to be determined. Some of the possibilities are listed as follows:
- aligning the licensing requirements of ARO yards to those under the Rules of Racing
- ARO Regulations will be harmonized with the Rules of Racing
- other raceday regulatory functions
“This is the most significant breakthrough for our sport since we began racing under the guidance of the BHA following our inception,” said ARO Chairman Charles Gregson. “It has always been the vision of our Patron, HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, that Arabian racing would be fully integrated alongside the British Thoroughbred racing industry. We thank all our participants, officials, racecourses and supporters for their commitment to Arabian racing.”
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