A couple of posts ago, I remarked that anyone who searched randomly through the FEI database was likely, within 20 minutes, to chance upon a horse whose provenance did not stack up. This followed revelations about the failed FEI investigation into whether dressage horse Wily Earl and the three-years-younger Golden Coin were one and the same, […]
Global Champions Tour: On September 29th, GCT sent out a promotional video of Scott Brash and Ludger Beerbaum effusing about a new GCT teams concept set to “revolutionize” their sport. I have to say I felt they were busking it a bit, the absence of detail leaving the rumour-mill to hypothesize that riders can be […]
On Saturday, I went National Hunt racing to support a friend’s horse. He was caught on the line for third place, but connections were thrilled as he has come back from a couple of niggles last year and runs and jumps better every time. At 15-1, it was also a profitable each-way bet. This prodded […]
Here is another “doppelganger” allegation reported to the FEI early in 2012 and investigated, until apparently fizzling out by the end of that year. The “paper trail” is still hiding in plain sight on the FEI database today. A chestnut called Wyatt Earp 25, a Bavarian by Weltrang L and born on March 1, 1995, […]
One of my all-time favourite films is All The President’s Men, about the Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who unravelled the Watergate scandal and ultimately forced the resignation of Richard Nixon. Woodward had a source known as “Deep Throat,” whom he met in a basement garage.* Deep Throat never gave away solid […]
Sheikh Hamdan, Crown Prince of Dubai, will face no action over the “Marmoog” horse swap allegations after the FEI announced today that “no legal action can be taken for procedural reasons and due to a lack of conclusive evidence.” However, the FEI has simultaneously announced that as a result of “loopholes” found by the investigation, it […]
Candidates for the FEI presidency have now published their manifestos, but even with this belated opportunity to widen debate into issues rather than personalities, Ingmar de Vos is still getting flak. The current FEI secretary general has controversial ambitions to change FEI statutes so that, if elected, he becomes the first salaried president. Swiss rival […]
I recently heard a fantastic put-down in a trailer for a TV show. A new boss introduces himself: “Hello, I am replacing Professor Dalton.” A waspish underling retorts: “No, you are not replacing him. You are merely getting his job.” The election campaign for the new FEI president is becoming a bit like that, for […]
It’s seven months and 11 days since The Daily Telegraph gave the FEI photographic evidence of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum (Crown Prince of Dubai, new world champion and stepson of outgoing FEI president Princess Haya) riding two different horses under the same identity at the 2012 endurance world championships at Euston, UK and CEI Numana, […]
I have keenly read debate on social media and elsewhere as to whether the all-sports-in-one-basket formula has reached its sell-by date, in the wake of the shambolic WEG at Normandy. I don’t know Bromont, but from what one can deduce from Google Earth, its outstanding natural beauty is equally matched by physical constraints. I hope […]
