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Entries for the 2017 AKEAHF open on June 23rd. A new prize system – 170000 euro in total. Judges are announced!

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Entries for the 2017 AKEAHF open on June 23rd. A new prize system – 170000 euro in total. Judges are announced!

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The 4th edition of the Al Khalediah European Arabian Horse Festival will take place, similarly to previous years, a week after the Polish Nationals in Janów Podlaski. The date of the show in Nowe Wrońska (ECAHO B-Int.) is August 18-19th. On August 20th the organizers invite everyone for the Al Khalediah Poland Cup race at the Warsaw Służewiec Racetrack.

 

The entries will be open tomorrow Friday, June 23rd and will be closed on 21st of July. Hubert Kulesza, the General Director of the Festival, says:

 

„I want to confirm that the Festival will take place. There have been rumours floating around that our event will not happen. I want to calm everyone down – the event is not only not cancelled, but we are already working on next year’s show. In a year’s time there will finally be an A-rank event in Poland – so today we are not only preparing for this year’s edition of the Festival, which is in two months’ time, but we are working on the concept of the fifth instalment in 2018.”

 

This year the organizers are introducing changes in the prize system for winners and participants. Director Kulesza explains:

 

„From the very beginning the motto „We’re changing for you” was important to us. We feel a duty towards exhibitors, enthusiasts of the show, our guests, to make each next event better that the one before. Every survey that our guests fill out during and after the show get read by us very thoroughly. We are very thankful for these opinions, because they show what we can still improve. Operating on a daily basis in the Arabian industry we are not deaf to critical views. What’s more, critical opinions are even more valuable, because they give us a chance to become better. So we listen and this is the reason for the most important change this year – a correction of the prize system. We are meeting the expectations of small and average-sized breeders. The new system is perhaps less beneficial to the largest brands, leading world studs and state studs in Poland, but rewards those breeders that most need financial encouragement.”

 

„During the recent show in Białka I was asked about the brand of cars that would be given out this year”, continues Director Kulesza. “A small surprise – there won’t be any cars. As it turns out that no one practically drives the ones we have already awarded (and we have awarded 16 in total during three shows and they were the only cars given out at shows in Europe), only several are in use at the state studs. After last year’s show, though the car was ready to be collected at the spot, the owner from the Persian Gulf was able to physically take the car to the Emirates in March of this year. So we are giving up on in-kind prizes and focusing on financial ones. And again something new. A system where the gold medal gets a prize worth more than 100 thousand PLN (a car) and the silver gets 8 thousand PLN (around 2000 euro) caused an n-teen fold disproportion between first and second place, though we all know that differences between the gold and silver champion are usually minimal and should not be set so far apart financially. So it would only be fair to “flatten” the prizes in the championships and classes. I would like to hereby announce that the gold medalists, regardless of the category, will receive 30 thousand PLN (around 7500 euro) , silver medalists 20 thousand (around 5000 euro) and the bronze – 10 thousand (around 2500 euro). So in case of silver and bronze medals the prizes have risen significantly, by 150 and 200%.”

 

„When it comes to prizes in classes, the reward system of the top fives remains unchanged and the financial prize will be 4 thousand PLN (around 1000 euro). But we are introducing an additional encouragement – the sixth and seventh place will be reimbursed for the entry fee. Our event is non-profit, something that makes us stand out among the majority of shows. We have a mission that our owner has been realising for some dozen years and that is the promotion of Arabian horse breeding. We want this money to best serve the industry. Large, world brands don’t need financial encouragements in such scope as breeders who are realizing their passion and investing their hard earned money. For a breeder who has several horses and cannot compete with the “tycoons”, such a bonus has a huge meaning. So we decided to go in this direction and support smaller breeders. The overall prize pool this year is about 700 thousand PLN (about 170000 euro), assuming that we hold 12 classes and considering the race with 59,500 PLN in prize money, which makes it the third best paid race in the season, behind the Europa Cup and Derby Stakes.”

 

For the first time we are announcing the list of judges invited for the show. They are:
Mrs. Irina Stigler (Russia), Mr. Tamas Rombauer (Hungary), Mr. Gideon Reisel (Holland), Mr. Fausto Scanzi (Italy), Mr. Ahmed Hamza (Egypt).
The DC members are: Dr. Katarzyna Szlęzak (Poland), Mrs. Christine Keyser (Norway), Mr. Gijs Eggink (Belgium).

The duties of the ringmaster will be assumed by Mr. Waleed Al Haddadi (Saudi Arabia).

 

It should also be mentioned that the organizers are introducing additional encouragements for the public.

 

“Entrance for the show will require tickets”, explains Director Kulesza “but we are introducing additional encouragements for the exhibitors. Apart from the batch of free entries, which will be announced shortly, each breeder entering a horse for the show will be able to purchase VIP and stand tickets at 50% off. We are also offering rebates for exhibitors. We would like to encourage our guests to support the Festival through sponsorships, as well as promotional and marketing activities. Our mission is to serve the industry and people associated with it and we have invested several million zlotys in this concept so far. We should treat breeding as a common good that we all care for. When I visit foreign shows I see how breeders and companies from this industry support their shows and seek to improve them. I also encourage our exhibitors to do the same. An additional bonus is that all our sponsorship offers come with a 50% rebate for exhibitors. We encourage to advertise in our catalogue and LED screens, as well as to purchase the sponsorship packages. Details can be found on our website.”

 

Festival’s website:
www.akeahf.com

Entry form »

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