Emeric George and ‘Duna du Ru’ win the Invitational Grand Prix sponsored by the Diputación de Cádiz

Teresa Blázquez Abascal and ‘Nasa de Toxandria’ win the Small Tour Grand Prix

French rider, Emeric George and the 12yr old mare, ‘Dune du Ru’ were the winners of the much anticipated, Invitational Grand Prix which was sponsored by the Diputacíon de Cadiz and is always the highlight of the XXXI Andalucía Sunshine Tour, kindly sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía, through the Consejería de Turismo and Andalucía Exterior, and by the Diputación provincial de Cádiz.

Today’s Invitational course designer was Louis Konickx and he explained to us his design for the first round in which there were 13 fences: “there are three lines.. with related obstacles, that are actually the challenges in the course; there is a triple bar with seven strides, to a vertical; six strides to triple, oxer, vertical, oxer; two and one stride, two fences (in between the next) line from a wall, into an oxer, to a double, vertical, oxer.  The last line… just at the entrance… always a little but difficult for the horses; is the bridge at 1.55 high; to the final oxer, and if you are clear, then you are in!”

Emeric and ‘Dune’, who is by ’Vagabond de la Pomme’ x ‘Apache D’Adriers’, were the second last to go in extremely competitive jump off of seven top riders. They stopped the clock in just 39.96s around the course in the David Broome, grass arena. They took the lead from another French rider, Stanislas De Malet with ‘Zambo M B’ (‘Zandor’ x ‘Lupicor’) in 40.32s pushing him down into second place; but the very last rider to go was German, Zoe Osterhoff, who rode a foot perfect round and slid into second place with ‘Kentucky T’ (‘Verdi TN’ x ‘Gratianus’) in a time of just 40.07s. An exhilarating jump off right to the very last in this 1.55 Longines Ranking class!

In fourth place was the Irish rider, Seamus Hughes Kennedy with ‘ESI Rock’ (‘Stakkato Gold’ x ‘For Pleasure’) and in fifth was British, Adrian Whiteway with ‘Chacco Volo’ (‘Chacco-Blue’ x ‘Carthago’).

Our winner, Emeric told us in his interview: “The Tour happened well with ‘Dune’, she ranked sixth in the first Grand Prix. The week before I went a bit too fast, so this time I wanted to take a bit more time, and the time allowed was fair, so I took a little more time to jump the course”; she “answered very well, and she jumped beautifully”; and his future plans? “I think a well deserved rest”, and “I think I’m going to do the National FrenchChampionship, in Fontainebleau at the end April”.

There was a win for Spain in the 1.45, Small Tour Grand Prix class from home rider, Teresa Blázquez Abascal, with her chestnut mare, ‘Nasa de Toxandria’ (‘Vertigo Saint-Benoit’ x ‘Chopin van het Moleneind’). They took the top of the podium in a ten horse jump off , which was held in the Milton arena and designed by Rafael Suárez. They stopped the clock in just 35.98s the only clear in under 36s. The British rider, Miles Jon O’Donnell was second in 36.13s with ‘Jackpot D.S’, another British rider, Joshua Hutchins was third with ‘Kyrah’ (‘Zapatero VDL’ x ‘VDL Zirocco Blue’). Fourth was Dutch rider, Amke Bekhuis with ‘Acuero’ (‘Acorado’ x ‘Catoki’) and fifth, another British rider Jordan Gann with ‘Kadans’ (‘Quidam de Revel’ x ‘Diarado’).

The Classic Tour Grand Prix had a British top two, the winner being the very fast pair comprising of Will Edwards and the ten year old mare ‘Stapleton Florence’,who is owned by Vanessa Fairfax. Second was a Glain Watkin Jones with ‘Heroine Pasquier’ and third was Dutch rider, Amke Bekhuis, with ‘Quickstep VDB’. Fourth was Swedish, Lina Renstrom with ‘Believe in Love’ and fifth, Spanish rider, Sofía Moreno Rodríguez-Yrizabal with ‘Brigitte’.

The rest of todays results were as follows: Italian, Luca Moneta and ‘El Capone RK’ won the Big Tour 1.45; Stanislas de Malet had another success, winning the Big Tour 1.35 with ‘Evita du Ha’.

In the Medium Tour, the winner of the 1.4 was British rider, Chloe Aston with ‘Flavie van de Helle’ and another British rider had a great day Jonathan Buxton won the 1.30 with ‘Millfield Kaiser’ and also the 1.20 with ‘Maserati WS’.

In the Small Tour, Spanish riders José Antonio García Diana won the 1.40 with ‘Dito’ and Izaro Junquera López won the 1.30 with ‘Danah’.

In the Classic Tour, another Spanish rider came top of the podium, Carlota Uson Jaume in the 1.25 with ‘Mardecs Trend’ and the British rider, Bryony Jones won the 1.15 with ‘Billy Kvitjell’.

This draws another edition of the Andalucía Sunshine Tour to a successful close as Montenmedio once again became the center,  from this January onward, of another top event of international and national jumping. See you next time around!