The conclusion to Sunday’s $32,000 CSI3* 1.45m Classic at Desert Circuit 9 had a striking resemblance to the same class held just three weeks prior. During Desert Circuit 6, Sameh El Dahan and WKD Aimez Moi jumped to victory on the Desert International Horse Park’s Grass Field, and on March 9, they returned to the field to do it again.
This time, El Dahan and WKD Aimez Moi were one of nine entries from the 30-horse start list to navigate the first-round, Julien Pradervand-designed course without fault. From there, it was on to the jump-off where the double clear rounds largely got progressively faster. When El Dahan returned to the field as the penultimate entry, the time to beat had just been set at 42.98 seconds by the USA’s Kaitlin Campbell and Questa VD Heffinck (Cabrio van de Heffinck x Cooper van de Heffinck).
“[WKD Aimez Moi] is quite quick on the ground,” said El Dahan of the 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse mare, owned by El Dahan and Joanne Sloan-Allen. “She covers a lot of ground at speed. So, to be honest, I didn’t watch anybody because I know she’s fast. I just have to stick to my plan and not get too distracted with the number of strides that the other people are doing. She was brilliant. She was very, very quick on the turns…That’s why I think I was two and a half seconds faster.”
El Dahan was indeed nearly 2.50 seconds faster, as he and “Harley” blazed over the final beach house-designed oxer in what would prove to be a winning time of 40.57 seconds.
Campbell and Questa VD Heffinck, owned by Mirasol Equestrian, finished in second place, and the final pair to jump, Paris Sellon and Anna Jo (Acodetto I x For Pleasure), took home third with a time of 43.07 seconds.
