Ciaran Nallon and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’win the Six bar class in great style

David Will and ‘Zaccorado’ win the very competitive Small Grand Prix Longines Ranking class

It was an extremely busy day here at the Andalucía Sunshine Tour and finished off with an exciting Six Bar class held in the biggest indoor ring in the world, the Jappeloup. 14 combinations competed in this challenging class, that stated off with two fences, a lefthand turn and then four jumps in a row, of increasing heights, set at two strides apart. In the first round the last fence was set at 1.60, and by the time the last two riders in the class were about to jump off, it reached a height of 1.85. Nine participants cleared all six jumps in the initial round with six passing the second round when the last fence went up by another 10cm.  From these, just two went thorough and then were to just jump last four fences in the final round,  with the last fence at 1.85. Literally looming over the course builders head!

The last two still standing, were the young Irish rider, Ciaran Nallon with ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and another young rider, Charlotte Bettendorf from Luxembourg, who hasn’t been off the podium here this week. She was riding ‘Salt Lake City 4’ today, and in then end she decided not to jump in the final round but was absolutely delighted with her horse’s performance. This left her automatically in second place, but Ciaran still decided to jump and he popped through the four fences with ease as if it was a mere training grid! An exciting and fun class that was greatly enjoyed by the crowds.

Finishing in third place on four faults, were Luca María Moneta from Italy with ‘Electra de Codre’; Sanne Thijssen from the Netherlands with ‘Hi There’ and the French rider, Guy Jonqueres D’Oriola who was unlucky, taking the penultimate 1.50 fence down in that penultimate round, and clearing the last, with ‘Adriano de Walyro’. In sixth was the British rider, Nathan Bull with ‘Moonstern JX’.

The other very competitive class today was the Small Grand Prix in the grass Hickstead arena. The quality of the field was amazing in this class and 28 riders got into the jump off. The course had one tight rollback and another 270 degree turn, which in the end were the deciding factors in the placing. The brilliant German rider, David Will, who has just arrived here at the tour turned on a sixpence into both of these fences and was the second and only other rider, to stop the clock in under 40s. David was riding the amazing 10yr old gelding, ’Zaccorado Blue’ (‘VDL Zirocco Blue’ x ‘Acorado’) and they finished in 39.27s  Up to that point the Brazilian rider, Carlos Eduardo Motas Ribas was in the lead on 39.90s with ‘Trix’ (‘Asterix E Z’ x ‘Skippy II’) and he ended up taking second place. Third was Charlotte Bettendorf with her super mare, ‘Babacool’; fourth was British Matthew Sampson, once again in the rosettes with ‘MGH Candy Girl’ and in fifth was the successful Irish rider, Commandant Geoff Curran with ‘HHS Clinstown’. 

Well known British rider Guy Williams, arrived this week at the tour and is already making his mark on the podiums. He was the winner of the 1.35, Big Tour, today with ‘Second Chance’, beating his compatriot James Smith with ‘Juno Rose 23’. James also took fifth place in the class with, ’Good Friends’. The Indian rider, Maryk Sahney was third with ‘Flyer B’and the Spanish rider Xabier Zabaleta Susperregui was fifth with ‘Gabber’.

The British ruled the roost in the Medium Tour 1.40; Jude Burgess was first with ‘Dreams of Don’ and Nathan Bull second with ‘Milton van Vrijhern’. Charlotte Bettendorf was on the podium yet again, this time she took third place with ‘Con Vados’.

There was a Spanish win in the Medium Tour 1.30 from Jesús Garmendia Echevarría with ‘Ulises del Pomar’, in 58.64s. Second was the Irish rider Shane O’Reilly in just over 60s with ‘BWE Vain of Diamant’ and third James Smith was again in the rosettes with ‘Diandra’.

There was also a Spanish win in the Small Tour, 1.45, from Pello Elorduy Ibarzabal with  ‘Champenoise de Rampan’; followed by two British riders,  Remy Ellis with ‘Flinton CN’ was second and also fourth with ‘Helsinki’, and in third was Elliott Dowler with ‘Diacento’.

There was another Spanish win in the 1.35 as well, this was by the hand of Hugo Álvarez Amaro with ‘Olina Van de Looise Heide’. British Kayleigh Watts was second with ‘Sacino’ and Pello Elorduy Ibarzabal added another rosette to his collection, this time with ‘Cancale'.

Still with the Spanish taking the honours, Nora García Urtasun with ‘Dallila’ won the 1.30; followed by two British riders, Elliott Dowler with ‘Angot HH Z’ and Chris Smith with ‘Knock Out’.

The 1.45, 8yr old class had a swap for the first and second placed riders from yesterday, German rider,  Jana Warger took first and also third with ‘Corrie 9’ and ‘Private Dancer van’t Meulenhof’ with Irish, Richard Howley in second with ‘Kolwa’, who won the class yesterday.

These are the main results and the complete set can be found on our social media sites. Tomorrow is the highlight of the week with three Longines Ranking classes, one sponsored by the Diputación de Cádiz where this week’s best riders will compete in this European Championship and Paris Olympic qualifying class. The Andalucía Sunshine Tour, is kindly sponsored by ‘la Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European Union.