Simon Delestre (FRA) – current no. ten on the Longines Ranking – and the 9-year-old Olga van de Kruishoeve (El Torreo de Muze x Nabab de Reve, bred by Eric Polfliet and owned by Ismael Bouabid and Youssef Bouabid) continued their winning mood at the first leg of the 2023 Morocco Royal Tour in Tetouan when topping Saturday's CSI4*-W 1.50m Prix De Dakhla.

Ten out of the 29 horse-and-rider-combinations at start cleared their way into the deciding jump-off, where Delestre and Olga van de Kruishoeve stopped the clock on 46.05 – taking the win ahead of the host nation's El Ghali Boukaa (MAR) and Ugolino du Clos (L’Arc de Triomphe x Roi des Elfes, bred by M. Antoine Garcia, Cardroc and owned by Moulay Abdellah Alaou) in second in 47.06. 

"For me, Greg is one of the best course designers on the international circuit, and it's great to have him here," Delestre said in a press release from Morocco Royal Tour, praising the work of the French course designer Gregory Bodo. "He's a friend of mine and lives ten kilometers from me – maybe that's an advantage. We're used to working together a lot, and he's got that subtle touch that makes all the difference. He knows how to build courses with finesse according to the horses at the start, and we're never disappointed."

"I played as if I'd come last in what would have been a very fast jump-off," Delestre said about his plan for the jump-off, where he was the first to go. "When there are ten horses behind you, you either play placed or try to win. I chose the latter option because, to be honest, I'm trying to keep my points to stay in the Top 10 with a view to Geneva and as I won this Prix de Dakhla last year, I had no choice but to win tonight. As I said yesterday, she's a mare on whom we have high hopes, but until now, although we didn't have too many doubts about her capacity, the speed factor was a parameter we didn't know. Now I can see that she's a very fast mare on the ground, I can always move forward in the obstacles and she holds herself." 

Mehdi Roessli-Dobjanschi (SUI) and Eden Van Pottelberg (Ugano Sitte x Kashmir Van Schuttershof, bred by Jules Van Eesbeeck and owned by Mehdi Roessli-Dobjanschi) placed third in 48.92. Marine Scauflaire (BEL) and Hortus d'Hoogpoort (Diamant de Semilly x Acorado, bred and owned by Patrick Dalle) finished fourth, followed by Emeric George (FRA) and Dune du RU (Vagabond de La Pomme x Apache d'Adriers, bred by Christophe Legue and owned by S.A.R.L. Uranie) in fifth.