Ireland was back on the top of the podium in two of the GP classes today here at the Andalucía Sunshine Tour. In the Longines Ranking, European 2023 and Olympic 2024 qualifier class, the Big Tour GP; our winner was Michael Pender with the talented ‘HHS Calais’. The top 50 combinations of the week jumped in this extremely testing event and, in the end, the quality of the top competitors really stood out. HHS Calais is really a 5* horse and has been competing with Michael Pender since 2018 in the Young Horse classes. This partnership was evident today when they were the only combination to go clear within the time in the first round, in this 4* 1.55 Grand Prix class, sponsored by Suzuki and designed by the Venezuelan, Leopoldo Palacios Jugo. This 12 year old Irish bay gelding is by the very famous sire, ‘Cavalier Royale’ and the dam sire is ‘Obos Quality 004’, from another amazing stallion, ‘Quick Star. ‘HHS Calais’ has many impressive results already under his belt, including a win in the FEI Nations Cup Final CSIO5* in Barcelona in 2022.
After his win, Michael told us:
‘I’m absolutely delighted to win the Grand Prix here in the Sunshine Tour week six’. 'I’m absolutely delighted with ‘Calais’, he jumped super and hopefully it’s a good start for another good season’.
‘The course was difficult today, there was only one clear and I’m absolutely delighted that I didn’t have to do a jump off, it doesn’t happen very often! But it was amazing and my horse jumped amazing. It was a very difficult course and quite big. I think its fantastic here to jump on the grass this early in the season and a big thanks to Sunshine Tour and everybody involved for making these brilliant conditions’.
In second place in this demanding class and with just one time fault was German rider, Michael Viehweg with the talented ‘Contario’ and in third, with just two time faults was Spanish rider, Santiago Nuñez Riva with the lovely ‘Chakira Z’. In fourth was another Irish rider, Jason Foley with 'Rockwell RC' and in fifth was the British rider, William Fletcher, with 'Valento'.
The prizes were handed out by the representative of Suzuki Ibérica, Juan López Frade.
In the Medium Tour Grand Prix class there was a Brazilian top two on the podium, with a win for win for Felipe Amaral who was riding ‘Androide 3K’ in this very demanding class that was held in the Hickstead arena. Only eight got through to the jump off in the class designed by Irish Colm Quinn, from a field of 56, and Felipe stopped the clock in 38.21s, followed by his compatriot, Luiz Felipe de Azevedo Filho with ‘Sierra du Piedroux Z’ who was over a second slower. Austrian rider, Alessandra Reich with ‘Anyway van het Kervijnhof Z’ was third;French rider, Aurelien Leroy with ‘Enjoy Blue’, was fourth and in fifth was Michael Viehweg this time with ‘Comanche 29’.
So the Small Tour GP was the other class won by Irish Ciaran Nallon with ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, and he was well ahead of the Spanish rider, Leticia Riva Gil with ‘Cadum de Champloue’who came in second. Third was Dutch rider, Rogier Linssen with ‘Dancing Nini Z’; fourth German, Nicola Pohl with ‘Fiona des Hayettes’ and in fifth another Irish rider, Nicholas Connors with ‘Fornett d’Emeraude’.
The CSI1* GP was dominated by Spanish riders, Jimena García Rueda won with ‘Gismo de Pravia’; Fernando de los Santos second, with ‘Isba Caps’; Carmen Mateos de Urbina, third with ‘Utopie du Ninet’; Silvia Diego Pardo fourth with ‘Raffa Muffin’ and in fifth was María Giralt Martínez con ‘City Meel’.
The Big Tour 1.45, had a top two Spanish riders, Kevin González de Zárate with ‘Kilimanjaro van Overis Z’ followed by Jesús Garmendia Echevarría a ‘Valut 2’with Irish Kevin Gallagher and ‘Hybernia’ in third.
That wraps up the sixth week here at Montenmedio. Full results can be seen on out social media outlets. The Andalucía Sunshine Tour, would like to thank their sponsors the ‘Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and is co-financed by the European Union. The seventh week starts up with the young horse classes on Tuesday where the 5, 6 and 7yr olds will have their last opportunity to take to the arenas before the Finals that are held on Wednesday. On Thursday the last CSI4* and CSI1* of the tour start up with the main event, the Invitational Grand Prix class being held on Sunday, where the 50 best combinations of all of the show, will compete.
19/03/2023 by Sunshinetour News , Press releases
SunshineTour, 02/11/2024