Álvaro González de Zárate and ‘Casa Diva PS’ win the Andalucía Trophy

‘Declic de Fond de Ville Z’ wins the 8yr old Final with Odile Gierech

José Antonio García de Mena wins the Dressage GP special with ‘Gladiador Do Lis’

Today in the Andalucía Trophy, 1.50 class, the Spanish rider, Álvaro González de Zárate had a commanding win with the 10yr old mare, ‘Casa Diva PS’, (‘Casallco’) who is owned by Heras Horses and Events and Yeguada Valbanera. This Longines Ranking class was against the clock and held on grass in the main, David Broome arena. The talented pair were the only combination to stop the clock in under 60s, in fact 59.00s dead. They took the lead, later on in the running order, away from the early leader, Portuguese, Rodrigo Giesteira Almeida with the grey mare, ‘Karonia.L’ (‘Harley’ x ‘G-Ramiro Z’) who were last Saturday’s winners, but today they finished second in 61.49s. In third was British rider, James Wilson with ‘Vuitton of Picobello Z’ (‘Vagabond de la Pomme’ x ‘Contact Ven de Heffinck’); fourth was Irish rider, Jessica Burke with ‘Express Trend’ (‘Future Trend’ x ‘Condios’) and in fifth was home rider, Armando Trapote with ‘Conthargo-Blue’ (‘Conthargos’ x ‘Chacco-Blue’) for Spain. The Andalucía Sunshine Tour, is kindly sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía, through the Consejería de Turismo and Andalucía Exterior, and by the Diputación provincial de Cádiz.

In a very competitive jump off, the winner of the 8yr old Final was ‘Declic de Fond de Ville Z’, a stallion by ‘Dominator 2000 Z’ x ‘Indian Gold’, who is owned by Gilbert de Roock. His rider was Odile Gierech, from Luxembourg and they stopped the clock with a really fast neat round in 41.23s.

Odile told us after the class.  “Today was amazing, he did everything I asked for.. I’m really happy.” She told us she has only been competing with him for three weeks: “he did a good job…- and hopefully will keep going like this. The course was quite tough, big enough and delicate, you had to be concentrating right to the last (fence), the triple combination was, for me really hard; a really nice build.”

The prize-giving ceremony was given by the sponsor of the Final, Diego López, who is the manager of KAR Sport Horses.

Close behind the winner in 77.37s, was ‘Assie Mie Nou Z’ who is by ‘Aganix du Seigneur’ x ‘Oklund’, ridden by Siebe Leemans from the Netherlands and owned by Jos Lansink Horses BV. Third was ‘Seapatrick Toulon’ by ‘Toulon’ x ‘Clinton’ and ridden by Irish, Jessica Burke. In fourth place was‘Ariana Z’ also by ‘Aganix du Seigneur’, owned by Jos Lansink Horses BV and ridden by  Laura Baaring Kjaergaard from Denmark. In fifth was ‘Vanilla’ by ‘Emerald’ x ‘Gatsby’ with Irish rider, Emily Turkington.

Rodrigo Giesteira Almeida was again in the rosettes, this time topping the podium, in the Big Tour 1.45 class where he was riding ‘Comme Le Coeur’ (‘Comme Il Faut 5’ x ‘Heartbreaker’ continuing their great form after winning yesterday’s Medium Tour 1.40. Jessica Burke also continued with her run of top results, taking second place with  ‘African Affair’ whilst the British rider, Sophie Evans was third with ‘CSIO Bel’.

In the Big Tour 1.35 the Hungarian rider, Laszlo Toth had another placing to add to his great results here at the Tour, with a stunningly fast round in 64.31s on the very fast mare, ‘Ching’ (‘Stauffenberg’ x ‘Justboy’); in second in 69.11s was Spanish rider, Fernando Urrutia Cobaleda with ‘Nena CC’ and in third was Brazilian, João Victor Castro with ‘Giulia Hoy’.

João was the winner of the Medium Tour, 1.45, with the 10yr old mare, ’Provence van het Bovenlos’, who is by ‘Kannan’ x ‘Berlin’. Rodrigo Giesteira was second with ‘Statis Conti’ and the French rider, Marie Demonte was third with ‘Give Me One Reason DK’ making this their fifth podium place in the last two weeks.

In the rest of the Medium Tour classes the winners were: the 1.40, Irish rider, Seamus Hughes Kennedy with ‘Castlefield Hera’, followed by British, Chloe Aston with ‘Flavie van de Helle’ and third was the Spanish rider Julio Arias Cueva with ‘Conisha des Forets’. In the 1.30, the winner was British rider, Red Morgan with ‘True Blue III’ and then two Spanish riders, Álvaro Castro Román in second with ‘Jub’ followed by Joel Vallés Rosell in third with ‘Elite Lande’. In the 1.20 class Laszlo Toth was the winner with ‘Conmir T’, second was Swedish rider, Hannah Akerblom with ‘Unbelievable’ and in third was Joel Vallés, this time with ‘Abbey Road van ten Bos Z’.

The 1.40 Small Tour, had a British top two from Iwan Carpenter with ‘Merllyn’s Chacco B’ (‘Chacco Blue’ x ‘Contendro I’) followed by Will Edwards with ‘SHW Candies B’. In third was the Dutch rider, Liv Linssen with ‘Lyn’.  In the 1.35 the winner was Spanish rider, Celia Cobo with ‘Etincelle de Saint’A’ and British rider,  Ben Walker won the 1.30 class with ‘Kantini’.

In the Classic Tour, British rider, Grace Gilbert was the winner of the 1.30 with ‘Bonnie’: German rider, Charlize Lacher with ‘Gigi’ was the winner of the 1.20 and the Spanish rider Carlota Usón Jaume won the 1.10 with ‘Utopie Les Hauts’

The results of the 3* dressage:  José Antonio García Mena from Spain was once again the winner of the Grand Prix class with‘Gladiador do Lis’. Top Spanish dressage rider, Beatriz Ferrer-Salat, was second with the gelding ‘Elegance’ who is now 16 and continues with his great form that led to a third place in the World Cup last November in Madrid.

Claudio Castilla completed the Spanish top three with the Lusitano ‘Jota das Figueiras’; Claudio Castilla also participated in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Spanish rider, Cristina Torrent Moll, was top of the podium once again in the Intermedia I with ‘Kadanz’.

Tomorrow the dressage will celebrate the Freestyle Grand Prix to music. There are thirteen jumping classes including two Ranking classes, the Medium Tour Grand Prix and the Big Tour 1.45. There is also the much awaited fun class, the Jump & Drive which is sponsored this year by Range Rover Marbella – C de Salamanca.