The Longines Masters at the Long Beach Convention Center was a marvelous display of horsemanship, and no class showcases the thrill and delight for knowledgeable and novice spectators alike quite like the five-star speed class. The beauty of the class design is that dropping a pole doesn’t have to be a death sentence if you’re riding the fastest horse. It just means you’ve got to make up the 2 second penalty somewhere else.
Nayel Nassar and his top notch partner Lordan dominated the Speed Class to beat out flying frenchman Kevin Staut, and when you see the side by side below, you’ll know exactly how he did it! In a true feat of speed, Kevin dropped a pole but still managed to lay down the second best score of the day.
So how did the riders fare? Check out this video of the class winner, Nayel Nassar on Lordan (left screen) and second-place finisher Kevin Staut and Elky van het Indihof HDC (right screen). Although Staut has the faster ride in 61.90 seconds, his dropped rail ultimately moved him just behind Nassar in 63.47.
Special thanks to Longines Masters for producing the head-to-head video look — we love being able to compare two rides side-by-side and seeing exactly where one horse-and-rider team gets the edge on another!