THE established amateur sport of Arabian Horse Racing is making a return to Hereford Racecourse on Sunday after an absence of more than 10 years.

Horses from Herefordshire will be taking on some of the big names from the Middle East in a full six-race card, starting at 2pm.Stallion Al Reeh Janoob, with Amanda Price, in all his traditional Arabian finery.

The flat-racing event is being put on by the Arabian Racing Organisation, who are responsible for the administration of Arabian horseracing in Great Britain.

Arabian Horse Racing is now firmly established in Britain, with a full programme of races taking place across the country, including at Huntingdon, Newmarket, Wolverhampton and Chepstow.

Two of the horses from the 90 entrants competing at Hereford will be from the Preston-on-Wye-based Pearl Island Arabians stud of Jenny and Tony Lees.

One of the horses from the Lees' stud, nine-year-old stallion Al Reeh Janoob, has raced for four seasons and has achieved 11 wins and 27 places from 48 starts.

He also achieved a ninth-placed finish out of 24 in last season's Arab Horse Society 26-mile marathon at his first attempt.

The other from the Lees' stud is eight-year-old Hazzina Bint Kray who is also a past winner, having won at Lingfield. She will also be ridden by Newmaket-based French jockey Pierre Deymonaz.

Both horses from the Preston-on-Wye base are born out of desert mares from the Royal Stud of Bahrain but their father is from a stud farm at Trellech, near Monmouth.

Jenny Lees, who once spent six years living in Bahrain, said: "The whole of Preston-on-Wye has promised to come along for what should be a friendly and informal day of flat racing."

She added: "Arabian racing is an amateur sport and the race winnings are less but it's still an excellent day out and people who come along will be very impressed."