Dubai World Cup Endurance 2005

Dubai has one of the best and most efficient equine quarantine set ups seen anywhere in the world. This consists of quarantine barns at various locations designed to cater specifically to a number of disciplines and sports.

Dr. Tom Morton, is the chief quarantine veterinary officer for the Emirates Racing Association and oversees the operation of Dubai's main facility at Nad Al Sheba as well as having over all responsibility for all equine quarantine issues in the emirate. He described the quarantine complex and associated stables for handling the majority of Dubai's temporary and permanent imports for thoroughbred racing.

"There are 58 boxes in the Dubai World Cup quarantine stables, with another 50 in three further blocks across the road," he explained. "Then there is the International Stables with 100 boxes in 10 different barns that qualifies as one large quarantine area, and it is where the European Union horses stay for the Dubai International Racing Carnival which runs from January to March.

"All these barns are 100 metres apart, something we have always insisted on here, and I don't think any other country does that. We provide world-class standards of quarantine.

"We have horses from the same part of the world in one barn, for example, Singapore and Macau, with the nine Brazilians in another barn and so on. When the American and Japanese horses come for the Dubai World Cup, they go into separate barns. This allows us to have horses from lots of different countries.

"Things are moving so fast in the UAE. The Dubai International Racing Carnival has taken off so much this year that we have filled up barns that would not normally be in use.

"Nobody else runs anything in quarantine terms quite on this scale. The Breeders' Cup, Hong Kong and Singapore do something similar but for fewer horses coming over for one day's racing. We have horses here for three or four months for the Carnival. It will be even bigger next year so I am looking to construct another 40 quarantine boxes for 2006. The set-up we have is huge - we have moved 2,500 horses in and out of here in the last six months.

"The original quarantine facilities were built in 1993, the World Cup barns were constructed in 1996 and added to in both 1997 and 1998, while the International Stables were built in 2000. There is a quarantine barn at Zabeel Stables, built two years ago, for show jumping horses and we also use that when importing and exporting other horses.

"The Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club has a modern quarantine facility which can hold 20 horses up to EU standards. The racing stables at Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are used for housing horses from other Middle Eastern countries and Sharjah is building new specialised quarantine facilities.

"The Royal Stables at Abu Dhabi have at least one quarantine barn and there are various other facilities - things are developing all the time."

Other quarantine facilities include the impressive barns at the recently constructed Dubai International Endurance City. The barns there accommodated 160 competing horses from outside the UAE for the FEI World Endurance Championship held in January 2005.