Sheikh Ali rides Carolina to fourth place in Shanghai

Qatar’s Sheikh Ali bin Khalid al-Thani just missed out on a podium, finishing fourth at the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Shanghai yesterday.
The Olympic rider astride his 12-year-old Mare, Carolina pivoted around the bends, producing a smashing clear round in 39.46 seconds. Sheikh Ali won €61,000 for his creditable show.
Belgium’s Gregory Wathelet and Coree set a jaw-dropping pace early in a 12 rider jump-off to seizing victory. The pair nailed the feature class with a Formula-1-fast round that simply couldn’t be beaten, finishing 1.69 seconds ahead of their closest rival in the field.
Britain’s Ben Maher and Explosion W finished second in 38.55 seconds, followed by Germany’s Daniel Deusser with Tobago Z in 39.11 seconds, in front of a fashionable sellout crowd at the China Art Palace.
This victory in China handed Wathelet the third golden ticket to the Global Champions Super Grand Prix at the new GC Prague Play Offs in December, where he will line up against Miami Beach winner Edwina Tops-Alexander and hero of the curtain raiser in Mexico City, Scott Brash.
Wathelet also soars up the overall rankings to fourth where the 2018 Championship race is still headed by Brash, fifth here in Shanghai and bidding for his third overall title on the Tour.
He sits just in front of another two-time Championship victor Alexander. Deusser is now third, with Maher fifth as the Tour heads to Europe and the Spanish capital of Madrid in a fortnight.
In the team event – the Global Champions League – Sheikh Ali combined with teammate Michael Whitaker to guide Doha Fursan Qatar to a fourth-place finish. Sheikh Ali was riding Carolina, while Whitaker mounted Viking as the pairs tallied 151.84 seconds in two rounds.
At the top it was a nail-biter, as British riders Emily Moffitt and Ben Maher claimed the first win for London Knights by the tiniest of margins.
The Knights, who had been in the lead after the first round earlier in the week, won the Global Champions League event by 27 hundredths of a second ahead of Simon Delestre and Jerome Guery of the Monaco Aces. Roger-Yves Bost and Dayro Arroyave of the Chantilly Pegasus finished in third place.