Earlier this week, on her blog Pippa Cuckson, questioned whether an endurance race recorded as having taken place on January 21st in Dubai actually ran.
While the results for the 120km CEI qualifier for last month’s President’s Cup were recorded in the FEI’s database, they revealed a surprisingly high – 90 per cent – completion rate. Cuckson also noted that no mention of the race can be found on the websites of the Dubai Equestrian Club or the UAE federation, and that there are no photos from the event.
Further investigation has revealed another suspicious race (80km), which supposedly took place on December 23rd in Abu Dhabi. As Cuckson reports in The Daily Telegraph’s Faked Endurance Races, portions of the results from this event, which were recorded in the FEI’s database by the UAE federation, are identical to those from a previous race, which ran in Bou Thib on November 21-22. There is also duplication between the January 21st race results and one that took place in Dubai on December 19th.