Nayel Nassar of Egypt treated the crowd to a fabulous finish in the $400,000 Longines Grand Prix of New York, the grand finale of the Longines Masters of New York on Sunday, April 28, at NYCB LIVE.
German course designing mastermind, Frank Rothenberger, created a difficult test for the 29 horse and rider combinations brave enough to accept the challenge, knowing 12 of them would be lucky enough to move on to the second round. Six riders representing six different nations managed to jump clear over the tough track and were joined by the six riders who had posted the fastest four-fault rounds for an all-deciding final.
Going in reverse order of standing and carrying faults forward from the first round, the tension mounted as the double clear performances began to present themselves. Captain Brian Cournane of Ireland was the first to jump double clear with Dino but his conservative time of 45.88 seconds left the door wide open for the riders who followed. Israel’s Daniel Bluman received a huge cheer from the crowd when he jumped clear in a time of 41.95 seconds with Landriano Z, putting him in fourth in the final standings.