The Italian rider, Alberto Zorzi rides for the Tops stables in the Netherlands, and was one of only 6 riders from the 90 entries, to go clear in the first round. The course proved to be a very difficult track but there were good clears by riders from Italy, France, Japan, Ireland and also two German brothers! In the end it was an exciting jump off for the crowd watching and a very close finish. Alberto, with the 11yr old mare“Veronese Teamjoy” took first place just 0.08 of a second faster than the Japanese rider Daisuke Fukushima, who also flew round the Milton arena on his lovely gelding “Conblue”, owned by Japan Equestrian. Jonathan Gordon came in third riding “Dorotheental’s Classica”.
The 1.40-145m, ’Cooking Almadraba’ Trophy was another important class today. The top three were lady riders, with first and third places taken by the Brits and Portugal taking second place. The winner was Alice Watson on her own mare “Billy Lemon”, Marina Frutuoso was once again on the winning podium this week, with the very successful mare,“Chassana” and in third was the unstoppable Jessica Hewitt on yet another top mare, “Chilli”. The mares were on form today!
The German rider Kendra Claricia Brinkop has worked out the trick of winning here on in the arenas at Montenmedio. For the third day in a row she has won the 1.35m class, this time with“De Flipper”, a 12yr old KWPN gelding from the Stephex stables. The owner of these stables and “De Flipper”, Stephan Conter, watched her winning round from the stands. Another absolute legend in showjumping was also here today, Nelson Pessoa who is staying until the end of the Tour. He has not seen the show ground for a while and was surprised and delighted with the improvements and the expansion of the facilities, their high quality and the quality of the competitors.
The 1.40m class was won by Francisco José Mesquita Musa from Brazil. There were more than 100 horses in this class but his experienced ride, “Sharapova Imperio Egipcio” gave him a foot perfect round.
The Spanish rider José Antonio García Diana took first place in the 1.30m MT flying round the grass arena, Arrayan, with his 12yr old mare“Narla”.
Amongst the riders here we can also see quite a few eventers, many of whom are aiming for the Olympics this year, Pippa Funnell (GB), Christopher Burton (AUS) and from New Zealand and regulars here at the Tour, Jonelle and Tim Price, all here training their horses for the season ahead.
Tomorrow is the highlight of the week, the Big Tour Grand Prix sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía. That will bring this third week to a close as we mark the halfway point of this year’s Sunshine Tour.
29/02/2020 by Sunshinetour News , Press releases , Sunshine Tour
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