Romania wakes from long slumber as racing attempts to get back on track

The Iron Curtain left racing in eastern Europe trapped in a bygone age and yet, at long last, there are signs that the sport is starting to escape the shackles.

First there was Overdose the Budapest Bullet, who came out of Hungary to win at Group 2 level in Germany and finish fourth in the King's Stand Stakes; more recently there have been Czech heroics at Ascot from Subway Dancer and Nagano Gold; and even Poland has got in on the act thanks to Va Bank and Fazza Al Khalediah, whom ITV viewers will have seen galloping to success at Longchamp on Arc day last October in the Qatar Arabian World Cup.

Even Romania, whose racing history is seldom told beyond its own borders, is starting to see the emergence of a functioning sport and curiosity was only ever going to be the winner when the opportunity arose to discover a little of that fledgling recovery as part of the World Arabian Horse Racing Forum.