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Mohammed 
set to lead UAE riders

Riders from 58 countries will compete in the 13th World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park on Sunday

DUBAI — His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will lead the UAE riders in the 13^th World Equestrian Games on Sunday at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Riders from 58 countries will compete in the world’s prestigious endurance event.

Building on a bright world record of successes, the UAE team is expected to win top titles under the leadership of Shaikh Mohammed.

Shaikh Mohammed finished first as the UAE endurance team won the 160km Stars Challenge race at Austin Park in England on July 25 this year.

The race came as part of the UAE endurance team’s preparations for the World Endurance Championships in Kentucky from September 25 to October 10.

This will be the sixth edition of the Games which are held every four years and run by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI). For the first time, the games will be hosted by a city in the US.

The World Equestrian Games, held every four years, are comprised of the world championships for eight equestrian sports — show jumping, dressage, eventing, driving, reining, vaulting, endurance and para-equestrian.

The inaugural games were held in 1990 in Stockholm, Sweden, with the most recent being held in Aachen, Germany, and have never taken place outside Europe, until now.

The 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky will represent the largest equestrian sporting event ever held in the United States. It is anticipated that 58 nations will take part, leading to numbers of 800 or more competitors, 900 plus horses, with the attendance predicted to be around half a million spectators. —