Emanuele Gaudiano (ITA) won both Thursday's CSIO5* classes at The President of the UAE Showjumping Cup in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. 

Opening with a victory aboard the 13-year-old gelding Chalou (Chacco-Blue x Baloubet du Rouet) in the CSIO5* 1.45m UAE Equestrian Federation Speed Stakes, Gaudiano left Constant Van Paesschen (BEL) and Verdi Treize (Diamant De Semilly x Eiger I) to the runner-up position – with only 0.23 seconds separating the two riders. Third place went to Bart Bles (NED) and Grenoble DN (Gaillard de la Pomme x Capitol II), 0.36 seconds behind the winning time. 

The top two riders in the CSIO5* 1.50m Longines Grand Prix qualifier was the same as in the Speed Stakes, with Gaudiano taking the win on the 9-year-old Nikolaj de Music (Kannan x Nabab de Reve) ahead of Van Paesschen on Diaz du Thot (Ready Boy des Forets *HN x Diams du Grasset). No less than 18 of the 56 horse-and-rider combinations in this class managed to produce clear rounds to move on to the jump-off, but fastest of the double clears was Gaudiano who beat Van Paesschen by 0.53 seconds. Third place went to Oliver Lazarus (RSA) on Butterfly Ennemmel (Quaprice Bois Margot x Lux Z), while Wilm Vermeir (BEL) finished fourth with Iq van Steentje (Toulon x Kannan) and Evelina Tovek (SWE) fifth with Winnetou de la Hamente Z (Winningmood x Socrate de Chivre).