Loop Two results

After the second loop, the front three runners from the UAE remain unchanged. Hazaa from Bahrain who was 7th has moved up to 4th place, Subose (UAE) who was in 4th is now 5th. Huzaim (UAE) who was 8th is 6th, Sulayem (UAE)who was 6th is 7th, Mohlesi (Saudi) who was 9th is 8th, Al Hawas (Saudi) who was 5th is now 9th, and Hamad Ali Rashid Al Marri from Qatar, riding Tequila for the Al Shaqab Endurance Team has moved from 19th to 10th place.

All of the Egyptian horses are still in the race, trailing...but no one here is terribly worried about their placing. If they can finish the team, everyone will be delighted. Yalla Misr!

There seems to have been an accident involving a Jordanian rider and I'm trying to find out details. Shakib Wahib Qabbani riding Al Andalous was eliminated on the first loop before the vet gate.

Second loop pulls are:
Bader Al Fard (Saudi) metabolic..he was in 11th place on the first loop.
Yusuf Ali Taher Yusuf (Bahrain) exercised rider option on his gelding Samara after finishing the first loop in 15th place.
Sh. Salman bin Saqer Al Khalifa (Bahrain) was eliminated for lameness (10th place loop 1)
Mohamed Mdani (Libya) exercised rider option as well.

Syria has only one rider still out, so it would appear that the two women I saw at the end of the first loop were out of time, but they don't appear on any of the pull lists. Note to self: question the time gate on my next visit.

Jordan, Bahrain, and Saudi have each lost two riders so far and if four finishers are necessary for the team medals, then Jordan is now out since they only started five.

Now for another hike to the timers.





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First Loop finishers

The first four horses for the first loop were from the UAE:
Salem Rashid Ghadier, Maktoum Stable on Dalton Du Capimont recovery time 1 min 9 sec
HE Sh. Majid Mohamed Al Maktoum, Maktoum Stable on Omani Iman, recovery time 3 min 9 sec
Mubarak Khalifa bin Shafiya, Maktoum Stable on Kaysand Farrazah, recovery time 1 min 46 sec
Mohamd Ahmad Ali Al Subose, Maktoum Stable on Kevin De Narthoux, recovery time 2 min 38 sec

The fifth rider is Saudi:
Abdul Raman Al Hawas, Prince Al Walled Bin Talal Stable on Falah Olood, recovery time 4 min 26 sec

Sixth another for UAE
Sultan Ahmed Sultan bin Sulayem, Maktoum Stable on Ryton Remy, recovery time 3 min 18 sec

Seventh rider is Bahrain:
Ahmed Abdulla Al Mohamed Ali Hazaa, Royal Endurance Team on Farhoz De Paute, recovery time 1 min 55 sec

Eighth rider is UAE again:
Abdullah Thani bin Huzaim, Maktoum Stable on Splendacrest Kamolflage, recovery time 5 min 18 sec

Ninth place is Saudi:
Mohamed R. Al Mohlesi, Prince Al Walled Bin Talal Bin Abdula stable on Anwar Al Mamlakah, recovery time 2 min 34 sec

Tenth place is Bahrain:
Sh. Salman bin Saqer Al Khalifa, Al Fateh Stud on Bedouin De Piboul, recovery time 5 min 45 sec

After 10th place the first group of mid runners had much higher recovery times but some of the later riders had recoveries similar to the front runners, so it's looking like some teams are hanging back a bit waiting to see if the leaders can keep the pace. The Qatari's rode the first loop much as a group, as did the Egyptians. The Egyptian recovery rates are in the one to six minute range, which is not bad at all. Yes, there is a partiality here...no question. I'm hoping that enough of the front runners mess up and that our guys keep their cool and maybe get a team medal.

When I picked up the results sheets, there had been 5 pulls in the first loop, all for lameness:
Three Libyan riders, a Jordanian and a Saudi

The Libyans were Aymen Harrous on Saada, Khalid Rajab on Wadi Jaref, and Mohsen Abood on Horra. The Jordanian was Jehad Shamaltoq on Travers, and the Saudi was Homoad Al Shamari on Cherox Juana. The completions and the pulls came to 39 riders and as I was walking to the press tent two women riders from Syria were having a discussion with the timers, so I have a sneaky suspicion that there was a time issue there. One other rider had not shown as yet but the next pickup should clear that up.

One of the Libyan riders was still in for the second loop. They are having a rough day. To have your first international endurance race be something like this is a very tough learning curve.


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More cars than horses on the first loop

It's 7:15 am and the computer in the press tent is bloody slow. There were 42 starters just before dawn here and 53 jeeps that set out in the desert for the first round. Watching them all leave was like looking down the slow lane on a highway. The first loop was fast for the front runners, mostly from the UAE with one Saudi in the first few minutes. The Egyptian team was coming in as the first horses were setting out on the second loop.

There are 6 horses each from Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia started. The Jordanians started 5 horses, the Libyans 4 horses, and the Syrians only 3 horses. Syria and Bahrain both have women riders on the team, so naturally I'm cheering them on. I'm afraid that my saddle didn't make it into the race...the poor rider still couldn't make weight...but apparently my EZride stirrups did, so I'm also cheering for them. I've seen one Libyan horse come in but I haven't seen the vet results yet.

The weather couldn't be better, cool, clear and no fog at all. So far all the horses that I've seen coming in have looked fantastic and most of them are pulling at the bits as they leave for the second loop.

I will collect photos together tonight to post. This connection is hopeless for that. I have a couple of guests from Florida, one of whom is an avid photographer, so there should be a very nice gallery of photos this evening. There seems to be only one net connection here so I will post again as soon as I can collect the pulls for the first loop...and as soon as I can boot someone else off the computer as they are trying to do to me.

Maryanne, reporting from the Cairo SUV festival.


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Egypt: Mayed to play key role for UAE in endurance ride - Nov 19 2007

Gulfnews.com - Full article

Pan Arab Games 2007

By M. Satya Narayan, Staff Reporter
Published: November 19, 2007, 00:02

Cairo: Young Shaikh Mayed Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum on Omani Iman leads the UAE challenge in today's 120-km Pan Arab Games Endurance Ride.

With Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Al Maktoum pulling out, Shaikh Mayed is expected to play a key role as the UAE chase honours in both the individual and team events.

European Open champion and UAE team trainer Mubarak Khalifa Bin Shafya and Asian Games bronze medallist Sultan Bin Sulayem provide the much-needed experience while Mohammad Ahmad Ali Al Subose, Abdullah Thani Bin Huzaim and Salem Rashid Bin Ghadayer make their debut.

Bin Huzaim, who finished third in the Surouh Challenge in Al Wathba on Saturday, will be looking to extend his good start to the season in his debut ride for the UAE.

"This is a good combination of youth and experience. All our horses did not have any problems in passing the pre-ride vet check. We are looking forward to the ride," said Bin Shafya, who won the European Open individual gold in Portugal this year.

Serious challenge

The UAE are firm favourites in the ride which starts at 5.45am. A total of eight teams including hosts Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Tunisia, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are taking part.

Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will pose a serious challenge to the UAE's dominance in this sport.

Badr Al Fader, one of the Saudi riders, said his team was keen to make an impact at this event.

"We have been here for over 15 days and have been training hard. Yes, we have not had much success at the international level but we will be making a strong bid to win a medal here," said the 25-year-old who finished 5th in the German Cup earlier this year.

T'was The Night Before...

This afternoon began the tests with the initial vet checks. They started at about 2 pm with each team walking its horses as they waited for their turn, which gave everyone a chance to size each other up. As far as I could see, about the only teams running home grown horses are the Egyptians and the Libyans; everyone else has horses collected from all over the world. Very athletic, beautiful horses from all over the world. I think that we are basically looking at two races tomorrow: the international horses and the local horses, but I could be wrong. For most of the teams, once the vet check was finished the issue was which horse and rider would be cut to make the six horse team for the race tomorrow morning. Once that was settled there was nothing to do but wait for morning and hope that nothing went wrong overnight.




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All the horses are now gathered at Sakkara Country Club/endurance village waiting the race tomorrow. It will consist of five loops out from the club to the south. The first, the red loop, is the longest at 36 km down to the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur...great photo ops. The second loop, the blue loop, runs south through the gap just west of the Japanese Hill like all the loops, further west to circumnavigate an east/west wadi, then east along the Fayoum/Cairo railway track to Mastabat Pharoan and north again past the Step Pyramid at Sakkara and the pyramids of Abu Sir, a distance of 28 km. Again, there are plenty of nice spots for very cool pictures of riders cantering past antiquities. The third loop, the green loop, leaves south to the Japanese Hill, runs along the north wall of the east/west wadi and then cuts southeast to the railway tracks along the same track as the red loop, but then doubles back to the club with an eastward bow towards the pyramids of Abu Sir for a distance of 21 km. The fourth loop, the yellow loop, was one that we rode part of on Friday and it parallels part of the blue loop southeast from the Japanese Hill towards the Step Pyramid and then cuts northwest of Masabat Pharaon to the railway tracks to make rounded turn back north to the club for a distance of 20 km. The final loop, the black loop, is a straight shot to the railway tracks and back for a distance of 15 km. The black loop is the most suited to a straight out horserace with long stretches of fairly flat sand covered in flint. Most of the other loops contain parts with deep soft sand and the more firm flint covered sand. In many respects, this is not at all an easy course. It is almost exactly the same race as was run in May 2000.

Most of the horses running this course are Arabs and Arab mixes. In the case of the Egyptian and Libyan teams, they are local baladi Arabs...unregistered Arab mixes who are the mainstay of the working equines in Egypt. These hardy, intelligent horses can be seen doing everything from sports to hauling carts here. In the cases of Libya and Egypt, the owners of the horses are quite average individuals who have a few horses rather than a major stable of them.

The Jordanian horses are being supervised by the director of one of the royal stables of Jordan and some of them came from the US Arab race tracks. One good looking but rather unsociable black gelding is the son of the horse who played in the Black Stallion movie. Most of the others were quite personable and happy to make one's acquaintance. Having a famous father must be tough.

A friend of mine had described the Saudi horses as being small, but I didn't notice that at all today. While none of the horses checked today could be called enormous, most of them were fairly average height and weight for the horses in this part of the world. Some of the riders saddled up after the vet check to give news teams from their home countries a chance for some video footage.

Other horses just went back to their boxes in the tennis court barn to relax while teams chatted and waited for the technical briefing in the club restaurant where they would be given a copy of the map of the trail. I was hoping for a copy of the final riders' list as well, but unfortunately the administrator who had the official copy left early for his hotel, so I will have to wait with everyone else until tomorrow morning at 5:45 when the riders set off. When I asked for a copy in the administration office, one of the men there looked at me quite puzzled and asked what team I was with, so I just turned around and let him read the back of my tshirt which says "EnduranceEurope.net@eu"... a yellow polo shirt that Steph sent my way with an eastward traveler. Aaaah. One of Steph's minions! Since so many people follow these events on the Teeters' sites, I'm given some rather nice consideration.

On some lighter notes, there are a number of women riders in the race tomorrow. I noticed some weighing in for the Syrian team, and it appeared that there might be one for Bahrain as well, though I could be wrong there. A few of the Jordanian team are quite young, and (although still over twelve) decided that there was some time to enjoy the playground after all. And finally, later in the evening when I'd gone home to grab a bite to eat, a jeep pulled into the farm with a couple of members of the Libyan team who found the dogs here fairly terrifying but who really needed a heavier saddle since one of their riders was having trouble making weight. My farrier asked if I could possibly loan them one of my Saare's which are cruising saddles rather than racing saddles and thus a bit heavier than usual. We got one out for them to look at and they thought that the extra weight might do the trick. The western cinches had them quite bewildered, but there are a couple of grooms at the club who know how my saddles work and can help them. The horse's owner asked how much I wanted to rent them my saddle, but never having rented a saddle to anyone in my life, I couldn't imagine. I pointed out that having come all the way that they had traveled to take part in their first international race, it seemed simply too much of a shame that the lack of weight should stop them from trying to compete...and anyway, since I didn't have a horse in the race, it was pretty cool to have a saddle in it instead. So tomorrow for what it's worth, I'm rooting for my saddle.

Dubai: Al Muhairi wins season opening endurance ride - Nov 18 2007

Gulfnews.com - Full article
Photo: Thani Mohammad Al Muhairi won the 120km Sorouh Challenge Endurance ride at Emirates International Endurance Village, Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi on Saturday. by Abdul Rahman/Gulf News

Staff Report
Published: November 18, 2007, 00:19

Dubai: Thani Mohammad Al Muhairi battled through fog and heat to win the season-opening endurance ride, the Sorouh Challenge at the Emirates International Endurance Village in Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Riding the eight-year-old gelding Royal Rebellion, Al Muhairi completed the 120km journey in 4 hours 57 minutes and 31 seconds.

Mohammad Hilal Salem Obaid Al Balarti, riding nine-year-old gelding Lobito Neero, finished second in 4:59.50 while Abdullah Thani Bin Huzaim timed 5:4.56 on Xandu Hari Bubba to take the third spot.

Xandu Hari Bubba is owned by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice- President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The fourth place went to Salem Rashed Bin Ghadayer who partnered El Estande. He clocked a time of 5.08.40.

Both Royal Rebellion and Lobito Neero are owned by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance and Industry.

Very fast

"It was a tough ride because of the early morning fog and heat in the afternoon," said Al Muhairi.

"Though most of the riders were very fast my horse responded well.

"I am also very happy that Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's horses captured the top two places in the opening race of the season.

"This is my first win since I took up endurance riding as a sport four years ago. My previous best result was a third place in the Emirates Challenge, last year."

Al Muhairi, 25, said it was the first time in five years that Shaikh Hamdan's horses were completing a 1-2 finish in Abu Dhabi.

"If my memory is correct it was at the President's Cup ride that his horses secured the first two places five years ago," he said.

The CEI 3 star ride was held over five loops of 32kms, 30kms, 24kms, 19kms and 16 kms.

Both Al Muhairi and Royal Rebellion were tasting success for the first time.

Out of the 80 starters 26 riders completed the ride which was sponsored by Sorouh and Masood Al Awar.

Results

1. Thani Mohammad Al Muhairi (UAE) Royal Rebellion 4:57.31; 2. Mohammad Hilal Slaem Obaid Al Balarti (UAE) Lobito Neero 4:59.50, 3. Abdullah Thani Bin Huzaim (UAE) Xandu Harji Bubba 5:04.56, 4. Salem Rashid Bin Ghadayer (UAE) El Estande 5:08.40, 5. Saif Slaem Mohammad Al Faresi (UAE) Joueur De loup 5:11.25.