Young Shaikh Hazza bin Sultan rode the race of his life. He was well placed throughout the trip, coming in first in the opening 32km loop and second behind Shaikh Hazza bin Zayed in the next two legs of the race.

He dropped down to fifth in the fourth loop and moved up to third behind Shaikh Mohammed and Shaikh Hazza in the penultimate leg before being forced to canter his horse by the French rider.

The new world champion said his horse was running the distance for the first time. “I allowed him to do his own running and had only to push him when the pace stepped up in the final stages of the race."

Hachim’s trainer Yousef Atiq Al Rumaithi added the bay gelding was prepared for this race over the summer months.

“He has won the Best Conditioned several times and I was quietly confident of a good finish. But when the tempo was on, I thought he had a really, really good chance of taking them on.”

Italy, nowhere in the frame of favourites, suddenly saw themselves holding on to their breath as their three horses Jasmineh, Jadana and Jamil Bello did the unthinkable thing of cruising to their only gold medal in a world championship.

"This is the day we have been waiting for during the past six months," beamed Federico di Matteo, the Italian Chef d'Equipe.

"We had always been confident of winning gold. Our preparations were geared towards this goal," he added.