UAE Sponsorship of rides in Egypt

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

Got an interesting phone call today from Abdel Fattah Ragab, who is the
president of the Egyptian Equestrian Federation, our national branch of the
FEI. I had quoted him as saying "According to Abdel Fattah Ragab, who is the
EEF president, Dubai would not be invited to sponsor another ride here,
which is not such a great loss except to the Al Ahram newspaper and
magazine." He told me that he'd had a call from someone who had been called
from Dubai with a complaint about "that crazy woman" again....so I asked if
I'd misquoted him. Abdel Fattah said that I had not, in fact, misquoted him
and would I please repeat that if His Excellency Mohamed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum wants to come to Egypt as a competitor, he will be more than
welcome, but that we do not want UAE sponsorship of Egyptian races. Part of
the problem is that most of our horses and riders won't be at a level to
safely compete in a UAE style race for at least five years....and some of us
just are not interested.

The Crazy Woman in Cairo
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net