Scottish star Scott Brash and his brilliant 16-year-old mare Ursula XII clinched the Grand Prix title with a commanding run at the CHI Al Shaqab yesterday.
The formidable combination took top honours in the CSI5* 1.60m class, which carried a whopping €500,000 in prize money, jumping double clear and then setting the fastest time in the four-way jump-off.
Brash was first to go in the jump-off and he produced a daring performance, drawing gasps from the crowd, as he delivered the winning round.
The two-time Global Champions Tour winner Brash and Ursula XII negotiated the highly technical course with ease to stop the clock in 45.21 seconds.
“Quite excited to have won and delighted that she (Ursula XII) did very well. It was a tight contest and glad to have come through. I couldn’t be happier with Ursula’s performance tonight. This top mare delivered three spectacular clear rounds to take the win,” said Brash, who is a London Olympic gold medallist in the team event.
“With all the upkeep of the horses, the money goes away quite quickly,” the 31-year-old said of what he would do with his winning pursue of €165,000. “I will be heading to Stuttgart, Germany for a competition next. We have some very good horses including one bred by my father so I am looking ahead to that event,” the Scott added.
Turkey’s Omer Karaevli tried to beat Brash’s time with his 12-year old gelding Roso au Crosnier, but could only come home in 45,98 seconds. The runner-up finish gave Karaevli €100,000 and he would be happy with his effort as it came in a star-studded field of 41 combinations.
The fastest time in the jump-off was set by Spain’s Pilar Lucrecia Cordon, who with 10-year-old mare Galihne La Cour Zichelhof crossed the finish line in 44.46 seconds.
But the pair picked up a penalty, which pushed them to third place, as Cordon had to be content with €52,500. Christian Ahlmann was also faster than Brash as well, but his 17-year- old Taloubet Z hit one fence and the German rider and his stallion ended in fourth place.
It was another masterful performance by World No. 1 Isabel Werth of Germany as she won the dressage Grand Prix Freestyle yesterday. Riding Don Johnson Frh, Werth scored a number of 8s and 9s in her test to finish on a score of 81.275%.
Werth is the most successful equestrian Olympian ever having contested in five Olympics, winning ten medals and six of those gold. Catherine Dufour gave Werth a run for her money with Atterupgaards Cassidy to score 80.775% but the Danish rider had to settle for second place. Anna Kasprzak, also of Denmark, took third spot with Donperignon tallying 78.700%.
Earlier, university student Khalid Mohammed A S al-Emadi secured a superb win in front of his home crowd in the CSI3* 1.45m class. The Qatari partnered his 17-year-old mare Tamira IV to set a winning time of 39.63 seconds.
Italian Emanuele Gaudiano won the CSI5* speed class with his stallion Chestnut in a time of 60.34. Jordan’s Ibrahim Hani Bisharat and his mare Brown Sugar finished just a fraction behind Gaudiano on 60.61. The Netherlands’ Markell va der Vlueten had his best result of the show with a third place finish on VDL Group Quatro in 60.94 seconds.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Ramzy Hamad al-Duhami finally got his big break in the CSI3* Accumulator class, having previously finished second twice with his horse High Quality J.
Al-Duhami pulled out all the stops to record the maximum number of points in the fastest time of 46.79 seconds. The second place went to Columbian Andres Penalosa, who finished in a time of 65.00 seconds with Tenor de Rouhet.
Qatari rider Jabber Rashid al-Amri came third with Canavaro de Muze (E.T), stopping the clock in 48.47 seconds.
Scottish star Scott Brash and his brilliant 16-year-old mare Ursula XII clinched the Grand Prix title with a commanding run at the CHI Al Shaqab yesterday.
