‘HHS Mercedes’ and Molly Hughes Bravo have a stunning win in the Ashford Farm, 7yr old Final

‘Madgeslane Luidam’ and Irish, Michael Pender win the 6yr old Final, ‘Ulero TW’ & British, Nicole Lockhead Anderson win the 5yr old Final

‘HHS Mercedes’ had a superb win in the Ashford Farm sponsored, 7yr old Finals today, with the daughter of the HHS studs founder’s, the young Portuguese rider, Molly Hughes Bravo.  The Final was set at 1.40 in the enormous grass Hickstead arena.  This very talented young rider had two horses in the Finals and had a pole on the last fence with her first horse ‘HHS Ice Flo’, but with ‘HHS Mercedes’ she rode a superbly fast round in just 39.36s on this lovely mare, by ‘Can Ya Makan‘ from an ‘Couletto’ mare and who is owned by Bravo Hughes Ltd.

Even with a pole with ‘HHS Ice Flo’, she also took fourth place:  ‘HHS Ice Flo’ is by ‘Iceman de Muze’ x ‘Cyrano 145’ and these results clearly demonstrate the real quality of HHS horses.

Molly told us:  I’m really pleased with both my horses today, they fought for me and they tried really hard and I’m really happy.  I also wanna thank HHS Ice Flo’s owners,  Mercer Marsh Dublin,  for letting me have the ride on her.  Well,  luckily I had two in it so on ‘Ice Flo’ I went in and I had the last fence down but I had, I knew, where I could be tighter, I could be faster so with HHS Mercedes I had a good plan in my head and I tried to do as much as I could.

Molly’s mum was also here today supporting her daughter and she told us, chuckling as she did,  that the last time she rode here she was pregnant with Molly, so Molly did hundreds of jumps back then! 21 years ago!  Molly’s father also told us he was really delighted with the results today.

In second place was ‘Luigi’, who is by ‘Luidam’ from an ‘Obos Quality 004’ mare, and owned by GBBS International Ltd.  Irish rider, Leah Stack rode this lovely gelding for a good clear in 41.04s.  But this was the only other clear in the jump off.  In third was ‘C-Mikado Wapiti MP Z’ with just one time fault ridden by British, Olivia Skinner,  Molly had had 4 faults in 40.97s with ‘Ice Flo’  and in fifth was another Irish rider, Susan Fitzpatrick with  ‘BP Goodfellas’ (‘Stakkato Gold’ x ‘Obos Quality 004’).

The winner of the 6yr old Final was the stallion, ’Madgeslane Luidam’, by ‘Luidam’ x ‘Obos Quality’, and owned by Annmarie Pender and his rider, Irish, Michael Pender;  who told us after his win that:  “‘Madgeslane Luidam’, is a homebred, so I’m absolutely delighted with that, and I think the horse has learn’t,  has got so much experience here in all the different arenas and , thats the amazing thing about the Sunshine Tour and thanks to everybody for making an amazing show again;  our young horses have learnt so much and we are absolutely delighted to be back and hopefully we can be back next year.”  We agree and really do hope to see them back next year.

The winning time was 38.49s and just behind taking second place in 38.53s was ‘Emerald F1’ (‘Emerald’ x ‘Indoctro’),owned by Manilva Equestrian SL ridden by Spanish Jesús Torres García.

In third was ‘Netflix VK’ (‘VDL Zirocco Blue’ x ‘Indoctro’) with another Irish rider, Max O’Reilly Hyland;  fourth was ‘Witchella HF’ (‘Diamant de Semilly’ x ‘Rash R’) with British, Emily Ward; and fifth was, BWE Windsor’ (‘Casallco’ x ‘Darco’) with another Irish rider,  this time, Shane O’Reilly and MIchael Pender also came sixth with ‘GCS Paradise’.

The winner of the 5yr olds was ‘Ulero TW’, who is by ‘Cicero Z Van Paemel’ from a mare by ‘Heartbreaker’ and owned by Jessica Williams. This super stallion was ridden by the British rider, Nicole Lockhead Anderson who has had great success here through the Tour.  The stallion was to be ridden by his owner in the Final but in the end Nicole got the ride.  She was delighted with her win and told us:  “Oh he jumped so pro, he’s actually a very new ride .  Jessica Williams has been riding him for the show, so I didn’t really know him and he’s very careful and everything just came up really nicely and yea he’s really cool.”  When we asked her about her plans for him this year she told us:  “Oh just aim him at lots of different shows and then I’m sure he’ll win plenty of classes.”

In second place was ‘Othello P’ (‘Luigi D’Eclipse’ x ‘Canturano’) with the Brazilian, Felipe Guinato;  third was ‘Touchable WH’ (‘Untouchable 27’) with Irish, Susan Fitzpatrick;  fourth ’Esmeraldo De Is Morus Z’ and fifth, ‘Chevy D’Or Z’ with the British riders, William Walker and Laura Mantel respectively.

Tomorrow we hold the 8yr old Final as the last big event in the Sunshine Tour Young Horse Series, here at the XXX Andalucía Sunshine Tour which is sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalucía, through Tourism and Sports of Andalucía and which now draws to a close after nine weeks of intense competition.  Tomorrow the last CSI4* starts up and the highlights of the week will be the Invitational GP classes held on Sunday.