Olympic team bronze medallist Abdullah Al Sharbatly notched up two further wins in the international classes at Royal Windsor to take his tally of victories to three so far. The Saudi rider has proved a formidable opponent to the rest of the riders in the spectacular Castle Arena, having claimed a win on each of the three horses he has bought to the competition.
Having claimed yesterday’s Bahrain Pearl Stakes with Andrea, Abdullah, a silver medallist at the last Alltech World Equestrian Games, kicked off today’s classes with a first in the Six Bar on Callahan. He was the only rider to go clear over the fences in the fifth round.
Later, riding Tobalio, he came forward to contest the lucrative Kingdom of Bahrain Stakes for the King’s Cup. In the final round, he clipped half a second from then leader Andres Rodriguez’s jump-off round with Caballito to stamp his authority on the show.
Ireland’s Shane Breen loosened Abdullah’s grip on the classes by taking the final class of the day, The Falcon Stakes, with Farao Van’T Vennehof. He won the class, run as a Winning Round competition – in which the starters are split into groups and the best rounds from each go forward to a jump-off – by performing an exceptionally tight turn back to an upright Land Rover fence, followed by superb use of his horse’s speed.
“This horse was placed in the Grand Prix here last year with my brother, Trevor,” said Shane, who owns the nine-year-old stallion with his Uncle James Breen and Anatoly Pysarenko. “He’s had lots of second, so it’s good to finally get a win with him. He is Mr Consistent for me.”
The class ran in the balmy evening sun under the shadow of Windsor Castle and attracted a huge crowd of spectators.
“There hasn’t been an empty seat for any class here and the crowd has been so supportive and really enjoying the jumping,” said Shane, who is based at Hickstead, Sussex. “The venue is amazing and the show offers the opportunity to see so many breeds and so many equestrian disciplines.”
