Kevin Jochems wins the Dunas de Barbate Grand Prix with ‘La Costa’

Seamus Hughes Kennedy wins Medium Tour GP with ‘Cuffersgrange Cavadora’ and Henry Turrell with ‘Challenger’ wins the Small Tour GP

The Dutch rider Kevin Jochems is amongst the top 100 riders in the Longines Rankings and today he won the Big Tour Grand Prix with  ‘La Costa’, who is by  ‘Gitano V Berkenbroeck’, dam sire, ’Calvino Z’. The Grand Prix was sponsored by ’Dunas de Barbate.

The top 50 riders of the week participated in this European 2023 and Paris Olympic games 2024 qualifier, with just nine, making it through to the jump off.  The 4* class was designed by French, Grégory Bodo, who is the designer for the Olympic track in Paris, alongside Spanish designer, Santiago Varela. The class was set in the main, David Broome grass arena.

Kevin was fourth to jump in the jump off and as he set off, not a clear round was in sight. He jumped a foot perfect and very fast round that challenged the rest of the field to come. He stopped the clock in 40.91s and despite a serious challenge from the Irish rider, shortly after him, Michael G Duffy, he just could not be bettered.

Kevin has been competing with this chestnut 12yr old mare since November, and in some top 5* shows, but this his first win with her so far at 4* in a Grand Prix.

He told us today; “I come here actually every year. I think its the best place in Europe for your horses. Today I jumped ‘La Costa’ in the 4* Grand Prix, sponsored by Dunas de Barbate. Very happy with the way my horse jumped today, couldn’t do anything better. Looking forward to the summer season with her. I will try to do some Nations Cups and from there on we will see”. 

Kevin has had some great results already here at the Tour, with a variety of horses: he won the Big Tour 1.45 with ‘Gijs’ on the 17th, also the Big Tour 1.45 on the 10th with ‘Catch Me’,  and was third in the Ashford Farm trophy on the 16th with ‘Flying Jackie’.

Michael G Duffy came second with a lovely round on ‘Clitschko 17’ (‘Christian 25’ x ‘Check in 2’) and British rider, Scott Brash with ‘Hello Valentino’ (‘Diamantino’ x ‘Careful 28’) was third. These were the only three riders to finish clear in the jump off as poles fell, when the riders in fourth and fifth tried hard to make the time. The young Irish rider, Harry Allen had four faults with ‘Calculatus’ (‘Cachassini’ x ‘Contello’) but the fastest  time, and similarly, Belgian rider, Gilles Thomas took a pole with ‘Elfra Van Beek Z’ (‘El Salvador’ x ‘Vagabond de la Pomme’).

Another Irish rider doing really well here at the Tour is Seamus Hughes Kennedy who was our winner with  ‘Cuffesgrange Cavadora’ (‘Z Wellie 72’ x ‘Luidam’) in the Medium Tour, Grand Prix.  This was a challenging 1.50 track, on grass in the Hickstead arena. Seamus was the winner of the Small GP last week on this very same horse and must be delighted with today’s results. He stopped the clock in a well contested jump off in just 40.71s, a smidgen ahead of Paris Sellon (USA) who was last to go and just slid in a fraction of a second behind him with the lovely ‘Attoucha’ in 40.85s;  Just behind her in third, was the French rider, Penélope Leprevost with ‘Djagger Semilly’.  In fourth was one of our past GP winners here, the young Irish rider, Niamh Mcevoy with ‘ Aconzina PS’ and in fifth German rider Jens Baackmann with ‘Aglaia J’.

The Small Tour Gran Prix was won by the British rider Henry Turrell with ‘Challenger’ second was Hungarian,  Aliz Alasztics with ‘Chablis 163’. British riders took third and fourth places; Sally Hopkinson with ‘Fadograaf’ and Laura Robinson with ‘Greenacres Cristalano’ and in fifth, was Danish rider, Rikke Haastrup with ‘Engerupgaards Cashett’.

The CSI1* Grand Prix was won by the Dutch rider,  Jop Keunen with  ‘J.Sellie’; second was British rider, Megan James with ‘Whitesparke Mystery’; third and fourth were the Dutch riders, Liv Linssen with ‘Lacona’ and Joyce Wolters with ‘Finkenhof’s Balou’s Quitai’. In fifth was Spanish rider, Haizea Garmendia Ajuria with ‘Tescari’Jac’.

Other winners today were Gilles Thomas for Belgium with ‘J. Comghorla Van Beek’ in the Big Tour 1.45;  Spanish rider,  Julio Arias Cuevas with ‘Brunch Jolivet’ in the  Big Tour 1.35; British, Olivia Sponer with ‘Crazy Girl’ in theMedium Tour 1.40; Harry Allen with ‘Carrera Denfer’ in the  Medium Tour 1.30;  British Nicole Lockhead Anderson with ‘Cassandro B’ in the Small Tour 1.35 and Spanish rider,  Celia Cobo with ‘Chantre’ in the Small Tour 1.30

These are the main results from today, full results can be found on our web page www.sunshinetour.net.

This finishes off a very busy week of jumping here at the  XXIX Andalucía Sunshine Tour, which is sponsored by the ‘Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European Union.

On Tuesday we start up again with the last opportunity for the young horses to take to the arenas before the finals, which will take place on Wednesday 22nd Feb.