Celebrating St Patrick’s day in style! Top two in the Andalucía Trophy are Irish, Richard Howley rep

A great second victory in a row for ‘Mansini LTD’ with ’Rockwell RC’ taking second

Henry Turrell with ‘Challenger’ wins the 1.40m ’AYTO Barbate Trophy’

It is Saint Patrick’s day; and what better way is there to celebrate, than for the top two riders on the podium to be Irish in the ‘Andalucía Trophy’ Big Tour, 1.50 Longines Ranking speed class; held in the grass, David Broome arena. There were 100 participants in this class and the course was designed by Leopoldo Palacios Jugo from Venezuela.

Richard Howley was our winner today, taking the lead in the class with the amazingly fast and balanced, 14yr old gelding, ‘Mansini LTD’, who is by ‘Caressini L’ x ‘Marramas’ and owned by Lennart Lindelöw. Yesterday this pair were the winners of the 1.50m, Barceló Conil Playa Trophy, and today they didn’t disappoint! They stopped the clock in just 74.31s in this challenging class and the only others to come close to their time,  were Jason Foley with the super mare, ’Rockwell RC’ who stopped the clock just behind in 74.37s. ‘Rockwell RC’ is by the fabulous stallion ‘Kannan’ and is owned by Sean Cubitt and she also won the 1.50 Hipotels BT class here on the 9th of March.  Behind these top two superstars, was the Olympic Spanish rider, Eduardo Alvarez Aznar with ‘Bentley de Sury’ in 77.09s. In fourth was another Irish rider, Commandant Geoff Curran with ‘Glengarra Wood’ and in fifth was the German rider, Michael Viehweg with ‘Contario’.

The 1.40 AYTO Barbate Trophy class; was also a speed class and held in the Hickstead arena with 76 riders taking part;  the course was designed by Irish, Colm Quinn.  Our winner was the British rider, Henry Turrell with ‘Challenger’. This 16yr old gelding is by ‘Corlensky G’, dam sire’ Cardento’ and is owned by Colin Ford. They stopped the clock in a very fast time of 57.68s, beating the Portuguese rider, Joao Mota with ‘Misterio Sobral da Costa’ who finished in 59.31s.  Henry has been doing well here at the tour and has a nice string of young horses coming on; he also won the Small Tour Ranking class on the 19th of February with this lovely gelding. In third was a Spanish rider, Pello Elorduy Ibarzabal with ‘Champenoise de Rampan’; fourth was British rider, Kayleigh Watts with ‘Sacino’ and in fifth, was Brazilian rider, Pedro Grandi Backheuser with ‘Atomic des Luthiers’.

In the Big Tour 1.45 class, our winner was Spanish, Carolina Villanueva Suarez with ‘Voice de Chenaie’ who stopped the clock in 26.25s in this 2Ph Sp class. This gelding is  owned by Philippe Hervein, he is by the famous stallion ‘Diamant de Semilly’, and out of a ‘Leopard du Castel’ mare. Italian, Luca Moneta was second with ‘El Capone RK’; third, Kevin Gonzalez de Zarate with ‘Favorito’; fourth, American rider, Julie Welles on the consistent ‘Greatfull’ and fifth, another very successful rider, here at the tour, British, Emma Stoker with ‘Daisy’.

The Big Tour 1.35 speed class was won by the Indian rider, Maryk Sahney with ’Flyer B’ who is 13yr old gelding by ‘Unanium’. They stopped the clock in 55.62s beating off Emma Stoker, who this time took second place with ‘Q Seven’ in 56.27s. In third was the Swedish rider, Sofia Westborg with ‘Astrid’s Lad’ who we have seen previously across the years here in the young horse classes. Fourth was Dutch rider, Anouk de Ruijter with ’Kaian Omar’ and fifth, another British rider, Ellen Whitaker with ‘Righteous’.

There was a Spanish top two in the Medium Tour 1.40, 2Ph Sp, from, Jorge Bidon Daurella with ‘Duska’ and Kevin Gonzalez de Zarate who this time was riding ‘Kilimanjaro van Overis Z’. Luca Moneta was both third and fifth with ‘Jolie Coeur d’Avril’ and ‘Chilli 41’, whilst in fourth was another Spaniard, Alejandro Entrecanales Marsans with ‘Banzai Semilly’.

In the Medium Tour 1.30 we had a French winner, Stanislas de Malet with ‘Hector de Laubry Z’ who is gelding by ‘Hooligan de Laubry’ and owned by S.A.S. MR Stables. Second was the Spanish rider, Aina Cifre Amengual with ‘Voyelle du Lesme’; third, British, William Walker with ‘Corino du Rouet’; fourth, Jason Foley with ’Castlefield Kingston’ and fifth, Edward Levy from France with ‘Igins du Seigneur’.

Top three in the Small Tour 1.35 were the German rider, Laureen Budde with ‘Gosbodino 2’, followed by two Spanish riders, Jose Fumero Hernandez with ‘Figuier du Roc’ and Jesus Torres Garcia with ‘Cassidy S’V.V. Z’.

Top three in the Small Tour 1.30 were British, Marnie Darcy Green on ‘Ice Cold Z’, followed by the Swiss rider, Charlotte Fievet who was second with ‘Dis Donc d’Eole’ and third with ‘Erdeven du Tertre’.

The 8yr old top three were; Irish, Ciaran Nallon with ‘Big Blue 3’, Spanish Inma Rocket Autonell with ‘Irivola del Maset’ and Richard Howley completed his day in third with the very consistent ‘Kolwa’.

These are the main results today and the rest may be found both on our App and internet pages. The Andalucía Sunshine Tour, is kindly sponsored by ‘la Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European Union. Tomorrow we have eight CSI4* classes, the 8yr old 1.45 class and the CSI1* continues, as do the Spanish Pony Championship Qualifiers. Notable classes will be the Small Tour 1.45 class and the 1.45, Big Tour, FEI Longines Ranking class.