Saudi Arabia's Al Eid wins big at Abu Dhabi championship

Abu Dhabi: Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Eid of Saudi Arabia turned the tables on the UAE's Ahmad Al Junaibi to win the Sorouh-sponsored Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club jumping arena on Saturday night.

Al Eid, who had finished second and third behind Al Junaibi in Friday's qualifier, rode one of his two horses, Al Ryadh, to a classy round in the final on Saturday to win the feature event in the three-day Abu Dhabi International Championship sponsored by Sorouh and the Normandy Breeding Stables of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs.

Al Eid had just one fault point in his round though he registered a much slower time of 60.32 secs than Al Junaibi. But Al Junaibi, who clocked 50.33 secs, knocked a fence and finished with four fault points.

Performances in the World Cup Qualifiers count for the qualification of two riders from the Arab League for the 2009 FEI World Cup to be held in Las Vegas later this year.

The two riders will be known after the Sharjah leg of the World Cup Qualifiers.

The Arab riders were to be finalised after nine events but due to a 60-day quarantine for the qualified horses before going to US, the two riders and their horses will be named after five rounds, two in Qatar and two in Dubai and Abu Dhabi that are already over with Sharjah being the final one.

Al Eid earned Dh37,500 for his win on Saturday night while Al Junaibi got Dh28,500 and the third-placed Ramzi Al Duhami of Saudi Arabia got Dh22,500.

Earlier, the UAE's Mohammad Abdullah Al Kumaiti started the final day's action like he did on the opening day - with a smart victory.