Al Reef Cup

[Roberta Jo Lieberman <woik@home.com>]

Many of you met Australian Luke Steele during his "ridecamp tour" across
the U.S. a couple of years ago. He's been riding in the U.A.E. for the
last couple of months and sends the following report on the recent Al
Reef Cup, held last weekend at Al Wathba, near Abu Dhabi.

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Al Reef Cup - FEI CEI Cat B - 120 km ride 20 April 2000
Sponsored by His Excellency Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan

The approaching summer and prohibitive weather conditions saw the UAE 
Endurance competition season draw to a close at the Al Wathba Endurance 
Village, 30 km from Abu Dhabi. With daytime temperatures around 45
degrees 
C, it was wisely decided by the Federation to start the ride at
midnight, 
under a full moon.
Sixty-one horses lined up for the start of the event, with nearly that
many 
4WD vehicles standing by on the side. I had been training three horses 
starting in the event. Custer, a part Arabian Australian Stock Horse 
gelding, Fenwick Serafino, an Anglo Arabian gelding, and Auscot Park 
Stefanie, an Anglo Arabian mare. Khaled and Majed, local Showjumping
riders, 
with a little Endurance experience rode the geldings, and I rode
Stefanie. 
The ride started in a very orderly manner, with horses trotting off
sedately 
down the 4 km moonlit sand racetrack. Our three horses started at the
back 
of the field, but before long we had passed quite a few horses, our 
long-striding partbreds pulling strongly.
Navigation was easy, with most of the horses attended by 4WD vehicles,
so 
the line of tail lights marked the track ahead. The first loop was 37
km, 
and took us over mostly firm sandy roads with one stretch of deep sand. 
Majed, riding Serafino finished the first loop about 15 minutes ahead of 
Khaled and I. The horses vetted successfully and we continued on the
second 
loop of 36 km.
The second loop was 36 km, flat and very fast, on graded sand tracks.
Custer 
and Stefanie worked very strongly to average about 19 km/hr. Majed and 
Serafino finished this loop 20 minutes ahead of us and vetted well. 
Unfortunately, Custer was vetted out, slightly lame behind, so I
continued 
alone on the third loop with Stefanie.
It was getting light at 5:30, and Stefanie trotted out brightly. We
passed 
several horses by the time we had gone halfway around this 29 km loop. I
was 
very familiar with this track, as it was the loop I used for training
each 
week. It was mostly flat and easy, with a climb of 20 m over a sand
ridge 
and a short stretch of deep sand.  We moved along where we could, as the 
rising sun warned of punishing heat within a few hours, but Stefanie was 
tiring so we dropped our speed for this loop to 15 km/hr. Majed and
Serafino 
were 46 minutes ahead at the end of the third loop and had gone out on
the 
final loop by the time I came in. Stefanie vetted in less than 5 minutes 
after the third loop, so she was going nicely.
The last loop of 18 km took us up the racetrack, then along a gravel
road 
for a bit. There was deep sand for several kilometres and it was
starting to 
get hot. It was a great relief to get back on the firm ground again and
over 
the ridge back to the end of the racetrack. With four kilometres to go, 
Stefanie felt well and cantered up to catch the horse ahead. I chatted
with 
Musallem as we trotted towards the finish line. Musallem gained a lead
of 
about 50 metres as I put water on Stefanie. I was unable to catch him,
so I 
pulled up to a walk and came in quietly over the line.
Stefanie vetted well at the final check to finish in 11th place and I
was 
very pleased to learn that Serafino placed 3rd. It was getting quite hot
by 
the time I had finished, so we finished not a minute too soon. Only 19 
horses finished successfully, so the terrain, although relatively easy,
had 
to be ridden at speed to beat the severe heat.
The winner of the ride was Sheikh Ahmed bin Humaid Al Nuaimi riding
Penback 
Park Caleb in a time of 5 hr, 57 min. Riding with Sh. Ahmed was Khaled 
Ghanem on Oak Lyn Lassiter, also owned by Sh. Ahmed. Third was Majed
Sultan 
Saif Al Awani Al Nuaimi riding Fenwick Serafino in a time of 6 hr 20 
minutes. Other Australian bred horses to finish were Omani Muscat in 6th 
(6:52), Cameo Windermere in 9th (7:20), Auscot Park Stefanie in 11th
(7:31), 
and Talquah Bruben in 15th (8:39). --  Luke Steele

Luke added:
"The times are very fast here, but they set up very fast tracks. The
only 
thing to slow them down is deep sand. There are no hills here at all.
Heat 
is another hazard, so it is important to recognize the heat factor. The
Al 
Reef Cup was the first night ride to be held here. At this time of the
year 
a ride of that distance could not be run during the day, with
temperatures 
well over 100 F."