The Peninsula
Hussain Saeed Haidan (Belucci Van ‘T Vleminkhof) and Hamad Nasser Al Qadi (Hugo Z) collected individual honours as The Top won the team event in the opening round as the Longines Hathab Equestrian Series kicked off at the Al Shaqab Indoor Arena yesterday.
Haidan won the top prize of the day when he clocked the fastest times on his 13-year-old mare Belucci Van ‘T Vleminkhof. Haidan made no errors as he completed the two phases in 52.57 secs and 28.51 secs respectively to win QR5,000 in the opening round of the third season of the popular tour.
Canavaro De Muze (ET), ridden by Jaber Rashid Al Amri clocked a time of 28.61 secs to bag QR4,000 in prize money after finishing in the second spot.Mohammad Hazim Abara completed the same task in 28.89 secs on Ambre De Beaufour as he came third and won QR3,000.
Hamad Nasser Al Qadi (Galwaybay Merbreaker) and Mohammed Sultan Al Suwaidi (Happy Feet) rounded up the top five, who made no mistakes in their respective routines.
Meanwhile, Haidan and his The Top team-mate Mohammad Hazim Abara (Ambre De Beaufour) clinched the Medium Tour Team Event after completing the routine with a collective time of 57.40 secs.
The win in the maiden team event of the Hathab Tour season earned Haidan and Abra QR10,000 in prize money.
Team Al Shaqab, grabbed the second place in 59.89 secs and won QR6,000. Team Al Shaqab had the services of Mohammed Sultan Al Suwaidi (Happy Feet), Ghanim Nasser Al Qadi (Dilandra) and Faris Saad Al Qahtani (Hidiene). Team Lusail’s Hamad Nasser Al Qadi (Galwaybay Merbreaker) and Haya Abdulaziz Al Raban (Cuando Z) won the third place.
Earlier, in the Small Tour, Hamad Nasser Al Qadi excelled on Hugo Z to win the top prize. The winning rider completed the round in 19.28 to get richer by QR2,500.
Jalieny Diamant Z, with Abdulaziz Ghanim Al Nuaimi in the saddle, completed the task in 19.69 as he won QR2,000. Khalifa Abdulla Al Khaldi who guided Fantastique to complete the phase in 19.74, booked the remaining spot on the podium and won QR1,500 in the event which saw an impressive number of 41 entries.
Omar Al Mannai, Vice-Chairman of the Organizing Committee Longines Hathab Equestrian Tour and Commercial Manager of Al Shaqab, expressed his happiness with the international reputation the tour has received.
“The Qatari showjumping championship is one of the most important events in the region and the organising committee was able to convince the world that the tournament deserves to be included in Longines’ international tournament calendar. Especially with the increasing number of horses and the number of riders as well as the wide publicity we received from media helped us get a number of sponsors,” Al Mannai said.
The annual series which kicked off its third season yesterday is jointly organised and hosted by Qatar Equestrian Federation (QEF) and Al Shaqab, a member of Qatar Foundation.