WELLINGTON, Fla.--Nayel Nasser of Egypt on El Conde won the $37,000, 1.45m CSI4* on March 24 at the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Nayel Nasser on El Conde (Photo by Sportfor)From 51 starters, 19 were clean over the course designed by Olaf Petersen Jr.

Nassar on El Conde went into the lead roughly halfway through the class, clean inn under 57.84 seconds, which held up for the win.

“I have to say, this is a bit of an unexpected win,” said Nassar. “We were using this as prep for the rest of the week, but he has such a good engine. As long as you turn him on and leave him there, he generally doesn’t waste much time. Our goal today was just to set a pace and keep it, but he’s such a cool guy he really locks on to the jumps and as soon as you think of a direction, he’s going there.”

 

NASSER noticed the 11-year-old gelding last November 2021 but was finally able to secure the ride at the beginning of February 2022.

“It took us a while to put something together, but I am very glad we were able to acquire him because he is such a cool addition to the team,” said Nassar. “He is really a fighter in the ring. He has a lot of character, and he tends to build in the warm-up ring. I was a bit rushed getting on today so I did not have as much time to warm up, and he actually seemed to prefer that because he never got a chance to get his adrenaline boiling. As soon as he goes into the ring though, he knows it’s time to perform and he just turns it on.”

Abdel Saïd of Belgium was second on Bandoit Savoie in 58.03 seconds, and Laura Kraut was third on Calgary Tame in 58.55 seconds.

Matthew Sampson of Great Britain won the $37,000 Grand Prix Qualifier CSI2*

In the largest class of the day, 89 icompeted with 11 going clean.

Sampson on Curraghgraigue Obos Flight was clean in 38.62 to win.

“Today’s course was very difficult – you could tell that when you walked it – but with the amount of entries that there were, the course designer had a lot of decisions to make,” said Sampson. “To me, it definitely rode more like a two-star grand prix than a qualifier but my horse jumps amazing, and he has deserved this win for a while. He has had some incredible rounds this season with maybe just an unlucky rail keeping us from the top.”

“He is the type of horse that wants to win as much as I do,” he said. “He has had great rounds the rest of the season in some of the bigger five-star events, but today’s two-star was equally as difficult. Where I think the course suited us best was his smaller stride allowed us to be quick down several of the lines that other riders may have had to steady for.”

Caelinn Leahy on Coldplay 31 was second in 38.75 seconds, and Wesley Newlands of Canada on Maestro Van Het Binnenveld was third in 40.30 seconds.