Diriyah (Nè Dubai du Cedre): New Rider, New Flag, Same Superstar

At 13 years old and still in the prime of her career, the chestnut Selle Français mare Diriyah—formerly known as Dubai du Cedre—has already accomplished more than most horses have in a lifetime. Her latest chapter is no exception.

At age seven, then known as Dubai du Cedre, she won the French championship—and caught the eye of one of the world’s best competitors and producers of horses, Julien Epaillard. After creating an investment fund, the French rider purchased a 70% share of Dubai du Cedre from her breeder, with the intent of aiming her at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Eventually, he would do just that, but there were plenty of titles to accrue along the way.

In 2023, as a 10-year-old, the pair took individual bronze at the 2023 European Championships in Milan and won the prestigious €1.26 million Longines Global Champions Tour Super Grand Prix at the GC Prague Playoffs. One year later, they finished second in the 2024 FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Riyadh, then went on to earn team bronze for France and finish fourth, individually, at the Paris Olympics that summer.

“I can ask her to jump a house!” Epaillard told Jumper News after the Individual Qualifier in Paris. “[Dubai du Cedre] always tries, she fights, she has such a big heart and so much scope.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before the buyers came a-knocking, and in October of 2024, Dubai du Cedre was sold to Deborah Meyer to compete under Germany’s Janne Friederike Myer-Zimmermann under the moniker Iron Dames Dubai du Cedre. Though they were together for less than a year, the pair competed successfully for the Iron Dames’ Cannes Stars team, winning the opening leg of the 2025 GCL season in Doha.

But Dubai was soon on to a new owner—and a new name—under the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation.

“We only got to know each other for less than one year but I will keep you in my heart as a true queen!” Myer-Zimmermann wrote on Instagram after the sale. “You are brave like a lion with the biggest heart and fighting spirit but still the kindness of a little pony.”

Last November, Dubai debuted under Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Alsharbatly—best known for his Individual silver win in the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games in Kentucky—and under the new name, “Diriyah”. The pair earned their first, top-10 placing in a 5* Grand Prix in Doha just three months later.

Then, in February, Alsharbatly and Diriyah took home their first official victory together—and it was a big one—in the €1.5 million H.H. The Amir’s Sword Grand Prix in Doha. This month, they were in top form in the U.K., as well, taking fifth place in the 5* Rolex Grand Prix at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Those kinds of results and more than €813,000 in earnings have just propelled Alsharbatly into the top five riders in the world for prize money so far in 2026—just under the top-ranked trio of Richard Vogel (GER), Kent Farrington (USA), and Scott Brash (GBR)—but ahead of notoriously lucrative riders including Pieter Devos (BEL), Simon Delestre (FRA), and Ben Maher (GBR).

In fact, Alsharbatly’s winnings with Diriyah, alone, account for nearly 65% of his total prize money so far in 2026. And though they’ve only jumped a handful of classes together, the pair currently maintains a 100% clear rate in three rounds at 1.60m, according to Jumpr.