Jessica Burke and ‘Express Trend’ top of the Podium for Ireland in the Equine America GP

British rider, Simon Crippen takes second with ‘Handsome’ and Spanish, Eduardo Álvarez Aznar with ‘Made In’t Ruytershof’ completes the podium in this qualifier for the Paris Olympics 2024

Just three riders from the top 50 here at this week’s Andalucía Sunshine Tour, went through to the jump off in the very demanding Equine America sponsored Grand Prix, a Longines Ranking class and Paris Olympic qualifier. 

First to go in the jump off around the course designed by Marcos Nuñez, was British rider,  Simon Crippen and his lovely 12yr old stallion, ‘Handsome’,  (‘Toulon’ x ‘Phin-Phin’) and they jumped a super clear round setting the time to beat of 45.88s really starting their season off well. 

Next in was Spanish rider,  Eduardo Álvarez Aznar and his new 12yr old mare,  ’Made In’t Ruytershof’,  (‘Norton D’Eole’ x ‘Diamant de Semilly’) who had a very fast round but took a pole off of the last fence.  They stopped the clock at 42.79s showing Jessica Burke, from Ireland, that Simon’s time was beatable.  Jessica rode a technically accurate and fast round with ‘Express Trend’, and won the class, stopping the clock with a super clear in 44.15s and pushing Simon down into second place with Eduardo in third.

Jessica was clearly delighted with her win and told us:  “I think it was an unbelievably brave call and a correct call by the team here at the Sunshine Tour, to run the Grand Prix on the grass today, the ground is unbelievable.

My horse feels in brilliant form, he hadn’t jumped on grass since Dublin last year, so I was a little bit… but once I jumped two jumps in the warm up, he felt amazing so I was quite confident.”

About the course:  “I think it was actually a very difficult course, especially with the spin on the grass today.   I thought the line to the combination was difficult, it was quite a forward seven, some people did eight;  again one to two there was a lot of different options and then the five to the last, I was very patient on the five,  I thought it was a quite trappy actually, the course today. “

‘Express Trend’  is by ‘Future Trend’ x ‘Condios and is a homebred owned by Liam Nicolas.  “My horse is 14 now and I just feel it’s literally only now I fell that we have the right ability and I think that helped us a lot today.”

In fourth and fifth, both with just one time fault in the first round were Italian, Emanuele Camilli with ‘Odense Odeveld’ (‘Diamant De Semilly’ x ‘Querlybet Hero’) and Czech,  Ales Opatrny with ‘Kapsones W.’ (‘Cornet Obolensky’ x ‘Carambole’).

Derin Demirsoy for Turkey, was the winner of the Small Grand Prix with  ‘Elzas’ in a 16 horse jump off . Second was Spanish rider,  Kevin González de Zárate with ‘Cantuccini 17 and third was Irish,  Niamh Mcevoy with ‘Jasmim Da Hermida’.  Fourth was British,  Chloe Winchester with ‘Equine América Billy Take That’ and fifth, Spanish,  Sergio Álvarez Moya with ‘Kyalinde’.

There was a Spanish win in the 1.50, Medium Tour GP from, Ismael García Roque with ‘Brazilia DK Z’ in an eight horse jump off.  They stopped the clock in just 39.22s  beating off the Belgian challenge from Yves Vanderhasselt who was second with ‘Merald Van’t Zorgvliet’ in 40.21 segundos.  Third was Jessica Burke, this time with ’African Affair’;   fourth German rider, Laura Hetzel with ‘Angel D’Or’ and fifth Eduardo Álvarez Aznar with ‘Cognac EB’.

Swedish rider Antonia Andersson won the La Equina, Small Tour GP, with ‘Coco Van’t Verahof’ in an eight horse jump off.  Our sponsor, La Equina is the equine referral hospital in Manilva.  British riders, William Walker with ‘I’m Special the One Ak’;  Fraser Reed with ‘Westbank Rio’ and Olivia Gent with ‘Brownheath Bodacious’ took the next three places in this class, and Danish, Sophia Studd with ‘Chacco De Muze PS’ was fifth.

The last Grand Prix today was for the CSI1*set at 1.35.  There was a Spanish top two in this class from, Cristóbal San Juan Yague with ‘Hera’ and Laura Díez Collado with ‘Veroney de Walyro’.  Dutch riders took the rest of the places,  Rogier Linssen with ‘Gabriela J’,  Liv Linssen with ‘Cini W Z’ and Melvin Greveling with ‘Noukie’.

Eduardo Álvarez Aznar was the winner of the Big Tour 1.45 with the 8yr old, ‘Genaro Paulois’ by ‘Aldo Du Plessis’ x ‘Baloubet Du Rouet’. Second was British, Jude Burgess with ‘Tina HP’;  third was Swedish rider, Amanda Eriksson with ‘Fifty Cent’; fourth French, Marie Demonte with ‘Gentleman Riverland’ and fifth, Brazilian, Pedro Junqueira with ‘Iceberg Sitte’.

Top British rider, Matthew Sampson with ‘Geneve R’ (‘Eldorado VD Zeshoek’ x ‘Berlin’) were the winners of the Big Tour 1.35.  The next two places were taken by Spanish riders, Francisco Asís Arango Lasaosa with ‘City Meel’ and Kevin González de Zárate with  ‘Loek’.  In fourth was British rider, Joe Fernyhough with ‘Calcourt Countdown’ and fifth was Irish, Billy Twomey with ‘La Vie’.

In the 2Ph Sp, Medium Tour 1.40, the Swedish rider Ebba Danielsson, not only won the class with ‘T-Gavoli Z’ but was also third with ‘Catjing’.  Irish, Sean Monaghan was second with ‘Cornet Clover Girl’.  Eduardo Álvarez Aznar was fourth with ‘Qevita VD Bisschop’ and Billy Twomey took another fifth place, this time with ‘Chat Botte E.D.’.

The Medium Tour 1.30 was won by British, Ben Walker with,  ‘Fygo Von D’Ouwe Grint’.  Swiss,  Yannickk Jorand was second with ‘Daylight VH Maressahof Z’ and third was Spanish rider, Antonio Mariñas Soto with ‘Qute Hero TC.  British, William Fletcher was fourth with ‘Qian Van Heiste’ and German, Leonie Böckmann was fifth, with ‘Four Roses 13’.

The British dominated the Medium Tour 1.20;  Grace Shudall Hughes was first with ‘For Free Z’ followed by; Joe Fernyhough with ‘Most Wanted N’ and Tilly Shaw with ‘One Diamond’.

There was another British win, this time from Charlie Atkinson and ‘Ballingowan Leia’ in the Small Tour 1.40.  Second was Spanish, Xabier Zabaleta Susperregui with ‘Arloy De Beausejour’ and third, Polish rider,  Lukasz Piksa con ‘Lucky Horse’.

The top two places went to Spanish riders in the Small Tour 1.30, Oihane García Urtasun and ‘Dallila’, followed by David Uson Olaso and ‘Brava’.  In third was Irish, Anthony Condon with ‘SFS Vincomte’.

Two British riders won the doubled up CSI 1.25 class.   Arianna Kuligowski with ‘Ivascalle’ had the fastest round of the day and Tallulah Mackenzie Smith with ‘Karaibes’ was our other winner.  The German rider, Charlotte Berghmans with ‘Couleur Chianti’ won the  CSI 1.10.

These are Today’s top results after an intense week of jumping at the Andalucía Sunshine Tour, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalucía, through Tourism and Sports of Andalucía.

We sign off until Tuesday when the week will start up with the Young Horse classes for the 5 ,6, 7 and 8yr olds.