Horses galloped through a race in the Arabian desert for the first time in any Asian Games Dec. 14 while a number of more conventional sporting pursuits were completed back in the city.

As the regional games, which have attracted 10,500 athletes in 39 sports, completed the last full day of competition, Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum, a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family, outrode a collection of fellow Persian Gulf state royalty to win the equestrian endurance race.

The event, making its debut at these games, had a field of 51 horses and began at sunrise. There was little of the sun, however, as the riders were forced to negotiate their way around desert tracks and dunes, often in a heavy rain.

Sheikh Rashid, son of the ruler of Dubai, finished the 120-kilometer, five-stage event in five hours 45 minutes 49 seconds. Bahrain’s Sheikh Nasser Bin Hammad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, son of the king of Bahrain, was second and Dubai businessman Sultan Bin Sulayem won the bronze