A French victory from Harold Boisset and ‘Tobetty Du Domaine’ closes the Tour in the ‘Andalucía Gran

American Hannah Selleck is second with ‘Cloud 39’ and Swiss, Aurelia Loser, is third with ‘Fleur Sinaa-A’

The last day of the III Andalucía October Tour was finished off in great style with the successful French rider Harold Boisset, topping off his success here by winning the Andalucia Grand PrIx, a Ranking class and qualifier for the Paris Olympics.  Riding the 16yr old mare ‘T’Obetty du Domaine’, who is by ‘Kashmir Van Schuttershof’ x ‘Diams du Grasset’ and owned by Bertrand Barascud, Harold took his third top placing in the Ranking classes here at the Tour. With this and  another second place, this pair have shown incredible consistency throughout the Tour and were well deserved winners today. In the jump off of 14 riders they stopped the clock in 35.72s.

The closest clear to his time was American, Hannah Selleck with ‘Cloud 39’ (‘Clarimo’ x ‘Quintero’); in third and forth were two Swiss riders, Aurelia Loser with ‘Fleur Sinaa-A’ (‘Cardento 933’) and Dominik Fuhrer with ‘Ghost’ (‘Lord Z’ x ‘Cantos’); all these riders came in under 37s. Finally in fifth was another French rider, Stanislas De Malet with ‘Zambo M Z’.

Prizes were given out by Francisco Montes, the director general of ‘Turismo de la Junta de Andalucía’ who were the generous sponsors of both this class and the whole of the III Andalucía October Tour. 

Belgian, Thomas de Wit with ‘Ecuador DW Z’was the winner of the 1.40 CSI3*; second was Italian, Stefano Nogara with ‘ESI Everest’ and another Belgian rider, Zoe Conter was third with ‘Petit Coeur Van’t Swertland’.

Dutch, Henk Van de Pol with ‘Jennifer’; Spanish, Miguel Honrubia Alvariño with ‘Alto de Talma’ and British, Skye Higgin with ‘Gotcha’ were the top three in the 1.40 of the  CSI2*.

British, Ben Walker and ‘Balloon Cruise’ won the 1.35; Portuguese,  Afonso Salvador Bento with ‘Simba de Olid’ won the 1.25 and British Lola Luchford with ‘Izar LB’ won the 1.10. Full results can be found on our web page and the Tour App.

And that’s a wrap for the III Andalucía October Tour. The Tour is sponsored by ‘la Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European union. Over this month of October more than 1,700 horses and 650 riders, representing 36 countries have participated here. The first week consisted of the Spanish National Championships with the ‘Absoluto’ being won by, Eduardo Álvarez Aznar. The next three weeks of international competition were concluded by an extremely exciting Nations Cup with 15 countries taking part and Spain winning top spot, as they did here last year. This year the star of the show was our very own director of the Andalucía October Tour, Teresa Blázquez Abascal who jumped three, foot perfect rounds, clinching the win for Spain in very exciting jump off.

Teresa Blázquez told us.  “We are really satisfied with the development of this event, the third edition of the Andalucía October Tour. This year we have consolidated the event and secured our commitment to holding a competition of the highest level here each autumn. The Autumn Tour has been steadily growing each year but this time it has exceeded all expectations, with both a higher quantity of participants and also a higher quality of competition, including the two qualifying events for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In addition, the celebration of the Nations Cup is always a special event and this year has been really incredible.”

“We will continue to support this tour; it has also become an important economic engine in the area, helping to extend the local summer season, with many local businesses and hotels extending their opening periods and postponing their seasonal closure, so that they can provide service to the riders and their companions, and all those who  are part of the Andalucia October Tour”.

“Finally, we thank would like to everyone who makes it possible for the tour develop successfully: the sponsors and other institutions that support us, especially ‘la Junta de Andalucía, ‘la Diputación de Cádiz’ and the town councils of Vejer y Barbate. We thank the riders who continue to come and support Montenmedio; the workers who make it possible for everything to be carried out with the greatest of guarantees; the judges, veterinarians, farriers and the fans and spectators who visit us here... In short, we thank all those who contribute their energy to make this event possible”.