‘Gucci du Hamel’, ‘Marola’ and ‘Madame Van Het Hellegat Z’, the winners of the young horse finals

The third CSI4* starts up with 6 classes tomorrow here at the XXIX Andalucía Sunshine Tour

Our winners in the young horse finals today were; Michael Hughes from the USA who rode ‘Gucci du Hamel’ in the 7yr olds; Álvaro González de Zárate for Spain, with ‘Marola’ in the 6yr olds and Charlotte Bettendorf from Luxenberg with ‘Madame Van Het Hellegat Z’ in the 5yr olds, this brings to a close the first set of young horse classes at the XXIX Andalucía Sunshine Tour; which is kindly sponsored by the ‘Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European Union. 250 horses jumped today in a very busy sunny day at the Tour.

The 7yr old Final

The final was held on grass in the Hickstead arena and was a challenging course set at 1.40m. The class was kindly sponsored by Ashford Farm. After an exciting jump off with  18 horses jumping, the winner came from the well known Stephex Stable, ‘Gucci du Hamel’. The gelding has a top bloodline being by  ‘Lauterbach’ who was ridden by Philippe Rozier, his dam sire ’Papillon Rouge’ who is considered to be one of the best, if not the best, sire of dams. His rider was Michael Hughes from the USA, and they had a super round today; this pair have had steadily good results here, also clocking up a second place the first week of the Tour.

Michael told us; ‘I have only shown him actually at four shows and he has won the final at three of the four shows. He’s been a very good horse he’s very fun and competitive.

I thought that the course was big enough today compared to all the other weeks here but my horse handled it really well and I’m really happy with him’.

In second place was the Dutch rider, Roosje Brouwer with ‘Lannebel’, this is a mare, owned by Piet Post and she is  by ‘Comme Il Faut’ x ‘Argentinus’; in third was Carlos Bosch Cebrián for Spain with his own‘Jolie Van der Berghoeve’ (‘Jaguar VD Berghoeve’ x ‘Kannan’). In fourth was another Dutch rider, Pieter Keunen with ‘Lambrusco’ (‘Entertainer’ x ‘Lux’) and in fifth was Gaj Riossa with ‘Lucifer JDV’ (‘Cape Coral RBF Z’ x ‘Calvin Z’.

The 6yr old Finals

The 6yr old final was the busiest today with nearly 100 horses taking part. It was in the grass arena, 9 Guaraná Champeix. 29 horses went into the jump off and in the end the winner was ‘Marola’. This mare is no stranger to the Andalucia Sunshine Tour and competed here with Joel Valles as a 5yr old. She is by the legendary stallion, Cornet Obolensky out of a mare by ‘Goodtimes’ who is from the KWPN 1,60 jumper, ‘Nimmerdor, a jumping line that is hard to improve upon. Today she was ridden by one of the most successful riders at the show this year, Spanish, Álvaro González de Zárate and she is owned by Yeguada Valdbanera. They were second last to go and took the lead in 38.45s from the German rider, Maximilian Lill with ‘Prestige 146’ (‘Pilothago’ x ‘VDL Groep Zagreb’) who ended up in second place.

Álvaro told us; ‘I started to ride her last week, up to that point she was competing with Armando (Trapote), and the truth is I like her a lot. She has a lot of scope and is clean (over the jumps). I have had her for a very short time, so far everything feels very, very good and I hope that this continues in the same manner and that she goes a long way.’

Álvaro was second last to go and took the lead in 38.45s from the German rider, Maximilian Lill with ‘Prestige 146’ (‘Pilothago’ x ‘VDL Groep Zagreb’) who ended up in second place.

In third was Maksymilian Wechta from Poland with ‘Next One’; fourth was German, Geraldine Lüthje with ‘Quick Lady 22’ (‘Quiran’ x ‘Cassiano 3’) and fifth was Dutch rider,  Stefanie Carroll with ‘My Lady’ (‘Toulon’ x ‘Landadel’).

The 5yr old Finals

The 5yr old Final was held in the Milton set at 1.20 metros. The winner was Charlotte Bettendorf from Luxenberg riding ‘Madame Van Het Hellegat Z’. She told us that she rode the mare for the first time yesterday. Up to this point the mare was jumping really well here with Inge Carton (BEL) who had two wins in the first week here and a second place last week. 

Charlotte told us: ‘She just did an amazing job, she’s a very quick horse and very competitive and I really appreciate riding her’. Inge broke her hand and asked Charlotte to step in: ‘she told me ‘oh she’s quick’ and I said ok! We are going to go for the win, and I’m very happy about it!’  The mare is by ‘Matisse de Mariposa’ x ‘Cash’ and owned by Spiessens & CO Bvba & Quality Sporthorses BV.  In second place was ‘N. Corofina Texel’, a lovely chestnut mare ridden by the British, Megan James who had an excellent round and was leading the field for much of the class.

In third was Daniel Fitzgerald with ‘Kimberly FZ’ (‘Kannan’ x ‘Chellano’); fourth was the Dutch rider, Doron Kuipers with ‘Dumoulin PP Z’ (‘Douglas’ x ‘Diamant de Semilly’) and fifth was the Spanish rider Pello Elorduy Ibarzabal with ‘Ines Mouche’

Tomorrow we continue with the third 4* show of this XXIX Andalucía Sunshine Tour. There are six 4* classes including the FEI Longines Ranking 1.50 class.