Steve Guerdat and ‘Lucky Fauntleroy’, foot perfect in the Small Geolastic Grand Prix

This celebrated Swiss rider, was third to go in the jump off, setting an unbeatable time of 36.28s

Dutch riders, Henk Van de Pol with ‘No Fathers Girls’ and Kars Bonhof with ‘Ivoor TN’ completed the podium

Steve Guerdat is no stranger to the top of the podium nor the Sunshine Tour, he is currently ranked number three in the world and today showed his class in the Small Tour, Geolastic grand Prix with the nine year old, ’Lucky Fauntleroy’, who is by ‘Lord Fauntleroy’ x ‘Comme Il Faut’.  Third to go in the 16 horse jump off, he laid down the gauntlet when he rode a textbook round, with a superb turn into the penultimate jump, that many would try to emulate. Steve stopped the clock in 36.28s and the rest of the field were left to chase this superb performance.

Two Dutch riders really stepped up to the mark, the first was Henk Van de Pol with ‘No Fathers Girl’, who was a smidgen behind Steve, finishing in a time of 36.97s and taking  a well deserved second place.  In third was Kars Bonhof with  ‘Ivoor TN’,  with a great round and still just under a second slower than the winner.   The final placings went to German rider, Kendra Claricia Brinkop with ‘Ma Belle’ and Spanish,  Mariano Martínez Bastida with ‘Quark de Preuilly Z’.  The Small GP was kindly sponsored by Geolastic, the leading Spanish firm in construction and maintenance of equestrian surfaces. Guillermo González Eguinoa, the CEO of Geolastic gave out the prizes. 

Daniel Deusser from Germany rode ‘Kiana Van Her Herdershof’ (‘Toulon’ x ‘Lys de Darmen’) into first place in the 2PhSp, Medium Tour 1.50 class, stopping the clock in 27.46s.  Hot on his heels was Swiss,  Edouard Schmitz with ‘Karel Doorman’, followed Belgian, Gilles Thomas with ‘Toulini Olympic’; Kendra Claricia Brinkop with ‘Nector VD Bisschop’ and Austrian, Max Kühner with ‘EIC Schabernack’.

The Big Tour, 1.35 was a speed class in the Milton arena, and the top two were Spanish.  Uxue Arruza Rodríguez was the winner with ‘Ceylan’ and Leticia Riva Gil was second with  ‘Conan de Taute’.  In third was Belgian rider, Dimme D’Haese with ‘Etikarta V Z’.

The Medium Tour 1.40 was won by the young Czech rider, Oliver Pisarik with ‘Chaccothago’;  Derin Dermisoy from Turkey was second with ‘Icarus V’ and the Polish rider, Andrzej Oplatek was third with ‘Cascalou 3’.

The Medium Tour 1.30 was won by British, James Wilson with ‘Hello Picobello Z’; second was Swiss, Yannick Jorand with ‘Daylight VH Maressahof Z’ and third, Japanese rider, Eiken Sato with ‘Chronicles of Narnia PS’.

British Jane Annett was the winner of the Medium Tour 1.20, with ‘Jamaica EBH’; Swedish, Lily Tegnestedt was second with  ‘Cayenne Z’ and Polish, Maksymilian Wechta took the last podium place with ‘Wimster’.

The Small Tour 1.45, was won by Helmut Schönstetter this time on the podium with ‘Toulanda Degli Assi’.  Second and third were Spanish riders;  Elena Appendino with ‘Pompei Van de Fruitkorf’ and  Castora Ortiz Agüera with ‘Robinson’.

Irish rider, Katie Mcentee with ‘Round Thorn Hercules’ was the winner of the  Small Tour 1.35 with British, Lila Bremner and ‘Es Coco Kan’ in second and once again Helmut Schönstetter was on the podium, this time with ‘Campino MR’; a really great day of results for this talented German rider.

The Small Tour 1.30 had another Irish rider on top of the podium, this time it was Shane O’Reilly with ‘BWE Valdi Semilly’. British, William Walker with ‘I’m Special The One AK’, was second, and in third was New Zealand rider, Clarke Johnstone with ‘Domasco’.

Spanish María Sainz de Rozas with ‘Coryphee Des IFS’ and Moroccan Youssef Salmeron con ‘Siroco de Jarsay’ were the joint winners of the CSI1* 1.30.  British, Arianna Kuligowski with ‘Ivascalle’ and top New Zealand event rider, Tim Price with ‘Falco’ took the two top spots in the 1.20.  Dutch rider, Nanna Adams with ‘Double Dees’ was the winner of the 1.10.

These are our main results today here at the 30th Andalucía Sunshine Tour,  sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalucía, through Tourism and Sports of Andalucía.

Tomorrow there are 13 classes including three Ranking classes and one qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

All results may be found both on our Sunshine Tour App and the official website www.sunshinetour.net where you may also follow live streaming of all the arenas or alternatively you can watch online at Clip My Horse.  Entrance to the show is free, there are parking areas, a commercial zone and numerous restaurants to suit all tastes.