The PR spiel for Newmarket racecourse bills the Ritz Club July festival, which starts today, as having a "garden party atmosphere".
Shame then that the racecourse is forecast to be bathed in rain for the three-day card that features the July Cup, which is sponsored by Godolphin's breeding operation, Darley.
Friday's July Cup is Europe's richest sprint race, offering £400,000 (Dh 2.9m) in prize money to connections of the thoroughbred who has the right blend of speed and stamina to sustain their challenge up the July course's uphill finish.
This year will be the inaugural running of the six-furlong sprint as the fourth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge.
This is due to the fact that over the last 31 years no fewer than 23 winners have gone on to be Europe's top sprinter in the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings. While not quite being able to match that calibre, today's racing features the Group 1 UAE Hydra Properties Falmouth Stakes and the Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes, a race which has a hit-and-miss record of producing the following year's 1,000 Guineas winner.
The star filly, Attraction, who won by five lengths in the Cherry Hinton in 2002, subsequently went on to win five Group 1 races, which included the English and Irish 1,000 Guineas, and the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Attraction was the first filly to complete the Cherry Hinton-1,000 Guineas double since the tough Sayyedati in 1992, and the last.
Unsurprisingly, Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien heads this year's entries with the Storm Cat filly Heart Shaped, but of more interest to racing in fans in the UAE will be the David Simcock-trained Ahla Wasahl. Simcock campaigned at Nad Al Sheba in Dubai throughout this year's Racing Carnival, and his links with the emirate have been maintained through the jockey Ahmed Ajtebi, who takes the ride this afternoon.
Ajtebi recently won winning the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. He has ridden nine winners over here this season, from 55 rides, and has four engagements at Newmarket over the next three days. A great opportunity, perhaps, to make it a perfect 10 of wins in Britain, and to fly the flag for the UAE once more.
@Email:sports@thenational.ae
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
