Doha, Qatar – In the warmth of a middle eastern evening, the Final of Jan Top’s Global Champions Tour began tonight with a speed class, the result of which said much about the quality of the riders concerned. Conrad Homfeld built a course that was testing enough for those who just wished to use the opener as a warm up but also left plenty of room for time to be saved by anyone wishing to make the most of an opportunity to win 8,000 Euro.
Olympic champion Eric Lamaze was first to really set the arena alight and flew through the gates in a time of 67.77 on his consistent mare Take Off. Bernado Alves nearly caught him on Kingly du Reverdy stopping the clock in 68.82 but it took a former triple World Cup winner to stop the Canadian from winning. Rodrigo Pessoa needs little introduction in show jumping circles and his ride on Cazino was masterful and ended up over a second faster than his rival. 66.59 was not really in any danger of being beaten and left the American continent with a 1,2,3 as the show, which culminates with the biggest winners prize in show jumping (300,000 Euro) kicked off.
Qatar’s own riders were not disgraced. To huge cheers and applause two of their trio rode clear rounds, Ali Yousef al Rumaihi best of them, finishing 11th of 37 starters on Ravenna. Sheik Ali al Thani was 14th on Santos.