Nayel Nassar & ESI Ali are the Aces of the $32,000 Artemis Grand Prix CSI 2*

By Jumper News on 2024-09-29

Greenwich, Connecticut – September 28, 2024 – Serving as the prelude to the team competition and super Sunday at the Greenwich Polo Club, Major League Show Jumping at its finest form took off to new heights on Saturday with the running of the first highlight of the day, the $32,000 Artemis Farms Grand Prix CSI 2*.

The 1.45m contest featured fifty-one combinations, all trying to navigate through Alan Wade‘s (IRL) first round course in flawless fashion. Vanessa Mannix (CAN) had the disadvantage of being the first to “face the music” and the Canadian gave it a good effort aboard Valentino d’Elte but unfortunately, one rail came down, meaning they would be out of contention for the blue ribbon.

The ensuing combinations had either a time penalty or at least one pole down, all until Nayel Nassar (EGY) and ESI Ali cleared all the fences while being well within the time allowed of 75 seconds.

The Egyptian’s performance was matched by Beat Mandli (SUI) and Kay Grey, securing a jump-off. One of the favorites to claim the jackpot, McLain Ward (USA) and Ilex showed their chemistry again, qualifying for the decisive round too.

**Mario Deslauriers** (CAN) & **Latino**

Mario Deslauriers (CAN) and Latino made sure Canada joined the mix while Samuel Hutton (GBR) and Casalltano PS added more spice to the contest ….what a recipe! Five combinations representing five different nations!

To make it interesting, Wade was up to his old tricks, being very creative with the course designing while not demanding too much of the horses, still keeping it quite interesting. In particular, the first two obstacles called attention, not too many courses start with two bending lines. First, the Major League Show Jumping oxer and then the Cabana Coast vertical, both having to be done in a bending line right before the tight rollback to the double (oxer-vertical) alongside the ring, the latter one being decisive in determining the winning duo.

And off they go… As the pathfinders Nayel Nassar (EGY) produced a deceptively fast jump-off round, answering all the questions before picking up the pace on the gallop to the final stretch, setting the time to beat of 33.35 seconds.

Regarding the intricacies of the jump-off course, Nayel stated: “Whenever you have a broken line like that, it’s all about the track that you ride, in the jump-off, you were coming in the inside line, getting the six strides pretty easy. In the first round, you’re obviously starting off, you’re not going to have much stride as you do in the jump-off, you could have stayed middle in the middle and it ended up being seven. Alan’s pretty notorious for that but I didn’t see too much of an issue there.”

Beat Mandli (SUI) seemed to be a bit more conservative with Kay Grey and although they duplicated the clean performance of the first round, they were just shy off Nassar’s time, registering a final time of 33.73 seconds.

Mario Deslauriers (CAN) was right on the heels of the all-time great Swiss rider, matching him stride for stride before crossing the finish line just four-hundredths of a second slower.

The outcome of the contest had already been determined since both McLain Ward (USA) and Samuel Hutton (GBR) got caught in the bogey jump, both in element a of the double (vertical-oxer) alongside the ring, keeping them out of the running for a podium finish. So, in the end, the victory belonged to Nayel Nassar (EGY), followed by Beat Mandli and Mario Deslauriers (CAN).