November 18 2007
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.
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...
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November 19 2007
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.
November 19 2007
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.
November 19 2007
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.
November 19 2007
It's 2:30 pm and I'm feeling a little schizophrenic. The internet connection is so glacial that I could easily spend hours in the press tent. Then I have to hike to the vet gates for the in/out times and the variation between the front runners and the back of the pack is so huge that there is at least a loop's difference between the two. Right now, as far as I know based on my last print out, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt are the only teams in the running for team medals. Everyone else has lost too many horses to qualify. The UAE are running hard and fast with one rider from Saudi Arabia chasing them at the end of loop 3 (they are going to be out on loop 5 soon however) and one from Bahrain before a trio of Qatari riders is moving up. Of course, by the time I actually get this posted and trot down to the timers, the situation may have changed. AND correction, the two Syrian women were not out of time, they were just running at the back of the pack.
The pulls so far:
Loop 1
Ayman Harrous, Libya, lameness
Mohsen Abood, Libya, lameness
Khalid Rajab, Libya, lameness
Shakib Wahib Qabbani, Jordan, horse cut by stone on coronary band on trail (but ok)
Jehad Shameltoq, Jordan, lameness
Homoad Al Shamari, Jordan lameness
Loop 2
Bader el Fard, Saudi, metabolic
Manal Majeed Fakhrawi, Bahrain, retired (rider option)
Sh. Salman bin Saqer al Khalifa, Bahrain, lameness
Yusuf Ali Yusuf, Bahrain, retired
Mohamed Mdani, Libya, retired
Saif Nasri Nuwwar, Jordan, lameness
Abdul Hamid el Salah, Jordan, retired
Loop 3
Ghazi Mohamed Al Doseri, Bahrain, metabolic
Raed Mahmoud, Bahrain, metabolic
Atta Mohamed Peer, Qatar, retired
Fahad Mohamed Al Hajiri, Qatar, retired
Lutfi Faraj Omer, Egypt, retired
Mohmed Jabar Faraj, Egypt, lameness
Abdul Rahman Al Hawas, Saudi, metabolic
November 19 2007
Preliminary results from the 4th loop show the UAE firmly in control of the first five spots. Hazaa of Bahrain is fifth and in a real surprise, Mohamed Salah Ibrahim has moved up from 13th to 6th. Half of the Egyptian team is in and we are waiting for the other half to clear and finish the 5th loop to see if they will qualify for the team Bronze.
The first riders have arrived from the 5th loop, a straight flat shot out to the railway tracks and back...perfectly suited to racing... and they are from the UAE. No surprise there, but let's watch the vet check. The Individual awards are sitting right in front of me and in typical "hurry up and finish" style, they are probably going to be awarded even as the later riders are still finishing the course. This really is a rather bad habit...looks totally rude.
I've not been a huge fan of our Egyptian endurance riders over the years and have bee quite exasperated at their lack of patience in a sport that above all requires it. As for FEI endurance, well, let's not even go there. However, at this point, I have to say that I am immensely proud of the work that the Egyptian team has done for this competition.
November 19 2007
For once I'm in the right spot for something as the awards ceremony is just about to begin within the regulation time after the arrival of the front runners. Tables are being filled with boxes and bags of gifts and tasteful silver and gold plate trophies line up in front of a sign for the sponsors of this event, PMA, which is some kind of investment company. The platform in front of the cafeteria is full of white robed men with either glistening white or red and white head scarves carefully folded back over their shoulders. There are, in fact, horses standing not 10 feet away who have not yet gone out to do the final loop but what the hay? There are people here who, I suppose, have seen enough endurance today. Everyone is waiting to award the individual prizes in the competition.
First place and individual gold goes to HE Sh. Majid Mohamed Al Maktoum Second place and individual silver goes to Salem Rashid Ghadier Third place and individual bronze goes to Mohamed Ahmad Ali Al Subose Fourth place goes to Mubarak Khalifa bin Shafiya
All four are riding horses from the Maktoum stable in Dubai.
And that's all folks.
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
November 19 2007
At the end of the day of the 42 riders who started the race, thirteen
finished, about a 31% finish. The rules stipulated that three of the
six riders had to finish for the team medal and the UAE took the gold
medal, while Qatar took the silver. Egypt ended up with two riders
finishing, as did Syria and it was decided to give them a joint bronze
medal. The awards ceremony for the bronze took place separately from
the other awards this afternoon at Sakkara Country Club, all the other
awards having been given yesterday afternoon at the time of my last
post.
This was a very tough race. The weather wasn't an issue with cool
breezes and high clouds so that plenty of these extremely fit horses
barely broke a sweat during the final short loops. The important
aspect of the race for these horses was the desert itself. Over the
past few years there has been quite an increase in four wheel drive
traffic in the area and this has disturbed a lot of the sand leaving
large pockets of very soft sand mixed in with a lot of rocky sand.
Most of the horses were wearing pads to protect their feet but
judging by the large number of pulls due to lameness, especially on
the first two loops, feet and legs really took a beating. There were
also quite a number of riders opting to pull their horses as well. I
talked to one Jordanian boy who told me that his horse just didn't
feel quite right and he didn't want to risk another loop which might
seriously injure him. I told him that he was showing good horsemanship
and he should be proud of himself.
The UAE went out fast to win and stayed in front for the entire time.
Qatar moved up a bit, having started out at the back of the front
runners, so to speak, while the Egyptians hung back and moved up quite
a bit at the end as many of the competitors between them and the front
dropped out. The pace set in the first few loops by the UAE was hot.
The winner did the first loop at 23.01 kph and the second at 22.28,
with each loop progressively slower for an average speed of 17.82 kph.
The fastest Egyptian rider, in contrast, made 18.26 kph on the first
loop and an overall average of 16.36 kph, a much steadier pace.
Recovery times for the horses started at 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes at
the beginning to 6.75 minutes to 8 minutes at the finish. The
printouts from the timers at these races are a wealth of information.
The venue for the race is a small place and basically everyone was at
each other's elbow all day. This was great for those of us who were
photographing, watching and otherwise trying not to get in the way.
Despite the relatively cramped quarters, much of the atmosphere was
that of a large very messy picnic for much of the day, with emphasis
on the mess as the grass down in the area for the cooling of the
horses grew boggier and boggier as the day wore on. The club isn't
going to have to water that lawn for a month. The areas for the horses
and riders to rest and eat were on a higher elevation so they stayed
quite dry and comfortable for everyone. The organisers had a large
tent set up with catered food for riders, crews, and press, which was
much appreciated, especially the breakfast at 6:30 am. The crowd at
the race wasn't terribly large, mainly because there had been
virtually no publicity for the event. Plenty of the riders in the
area were completely unaware of the race, but some showed up to watch
for a while. Endurance is not a very high profile sport in Egypt. I
had to laugh at the comment of one woman who'd never seen an endurance
race before that she'd never spent so much time watching people bathe
horses.
If I have one main complaint about the race it would be the timing of
the awards ceremony for the individual and team gold and silver. Maybe
I'm just really old-fashioned but it seems to me to be a bit rude to
give out some of the awards before the others, even if this is the
pattern that we've grown accustomed to with the UAE organised races in
Egypt. I have a very hard time being comfortable about giving out
awards before the race is over, but maybe that's just me.
The horses that most of the countries brought in were beautiful. We
had the Egyptian National and International Halter Shows out at the
EAO over the four days preceding the race, and for my money the
graceful, athletic healthy creatures inhabiting the club and visiting
our desert at the time have the halter show ponies beat hands down. I
have had visitors from the US this week who simply went nuts with
cameras at the event and once we sort out some of these millions of
photos we will get them up on the net for you. There are some
beauties.
There were surprisingly few glitches at the race as well. One
Jordanian horse cut his coronary band during the first loop and had to
wait quite a while to be trailered back to the club. Depending on
where he was waiting, this is pretty understandable since trailers are
in pretty short supply in Egypt in the first place and moving one
around in the desert is a major problem in the second. Most horses
here travel in big trucks that can't navigate sand, or on foot. But
the horse made it back just fine. The winning horse Omani Iman looked
a little rocky at the finish and was rechecked by the vets. There was
the usual huge cheer when the UAE came in from the last loop, followed
by about half an hour of dead silence, followed once more by a cheer
when the horse was pronounced ok. He later came in second for BC
behind Dalton Du Capimont. The Libyans, who had come to Cairo almost
totally in the dark about the sport, had a major eye opening, but I
hope that they don't find the learning curve too daunting. They were
pretty nice guys who gave it a try...a lot like the Egyptians in 2000.
I personally was very proud of our Egyptian team who have come a
rather long way from the early days. From a position of knowing
absolutely nothing at all about endurance in the spring of 2000 and
being smacked in the face by teams from the UAE with horses whose
names I'd read in articles, they've matured a lot. It's one thing to
be told that it takes time to bring along a good endurance horse and
another to actually do it. Their pacing of their ride this time showed
me that progress is definitely being made and I'm happy that they are
seeing a reward for it.
My stirrup and saddle never made it past the first loop. Oh well,
there's always another race.
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
