Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed celebrated as Mikael Barzalona rode Monterosso to victory in the the emirate's World Cup in April, but the result was somewhat overshadowed by the death of another Godolphin horse, Fox Hunt, in the inaugural Gold Cup held earlier in the meeting.

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For the class warriors of the left, fox-hunting is wrong because the structure of the hunt reflects ossified social hierarchies.

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Also, it would not be illegal to hunt a fox or a hare if the intention was to eat it.

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The first Hunt Cup took place in 1894, when two fox hunting clubs challenged each other to a race to determine which had the better horsemen.

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In 1997 Britain elected a government that promised a vote on banning the sport and Mr Downing, seeing the writing on the wall, left the next year. (Fox-hunting was eventually banned in 2004.) After three years with a hunt in Alabama, he moved to Virginia, where English-style fox-hunting has been popular since George Washington's day.

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He said that when the first fox was found that day, he stopped the hounds, because they had turned away from the direction where the hunt marksman was waiting.

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