Alvaro Gonzalez de Zárate and ‘Casa Diva PS’: the new Spanish Absolute Champions

Elena Appendino and ‘Pompei van de Fruitkorf’ take gold in the Spanish Young Rider Championship

Jesús Torres García and ‘Diabetto PS’, have an impressive win in the 1.40 Classic tour

Álvaro González de Zárate and ‘Casa Diva PS’ are the new Absolute Showjumping Champions of Spain. The 10yr old bay mare by ‘Casallco’ x ‘Corel Z’ and owned by Heras Horses and events and Yeguada Valbanera SL, had a very consistent `performance across the championship rounds and clinched the win with an excellent last round here at Montenmedio in the grass, David Broome arena, the highlight event of the whole championships. The 1.55 course was cleverly designed by Rafael Suarez with many stride challenges and questions that warranted a championship final. There were fifteen horses in the first round with just ten moving on to the second.

Alvaro González de Zárate started off his final challenge sitting on 1.23 points, behind  Iván Serrano Sáez and ‘El Punkto’, who had had a foot perfect championship up to this point and were still on zero. This continued in the first leg of the final for Serrano Sáez where only he and Ricardo Jurado Narváez with ‘Zamarano Z’ went clear. In this first round Álvaro, added 4 faults to his score and ended up with 5.23.

The second round was really the nail biter as the horses jumped in reverse order. Serrano Sáez was last to go and sadly had a total of 12 faults taking him down two places to bronze whilst Alvaro had a super clear and clinched the win.

Jesús Bamonde and ‘Agr Trouble Maker’ took silver with a total of 10.84: having four in each of the final rounds.

The Spanish Champion of 2022, our home rider Armando Trapote Mariscal and ‘Conthargo-Blue’ had just four faults in the first round of the championship and clear in the second to take fourth place whilst Ricardo Jurado Narváez went clear in both round and ended up in fifth place.

Elena Appendino and ‘Pompei van de Fruitkorf’ were the winners of the Spanish Championship Young Riders today whose final was held in the David Broome grass arena. The final consisted of two rounds set at 1.45m.  ‘Pompei van de Fruitkorf’ is 10 years old by the top stallion ‘For Pleasure’ x ‘Clinton’ and this pair started off their final challenge for gold with just 3.43 on their cumulative score, sitting behind Juan Riva Gil with ‘Victoria d’Argent’, who were still on zero after a superb performance in the qualifying rounds.

In the very first round of the final, this order changed with Riva having 8 faults, a foot in the water and a pole; whist Appendino, had just 4 faults and took the lead.

In the second round Riva had another pole and ended his Championship on a sum of 12 faults but Appendino jumped clear and took gold with just 7.43 faults.

Bronze went to María García-Pertusa Bodega and ‘Gitalyn’ who began their final challenge with a score of 4.61 puntos, but had eight in the first round, whilst jumping clear in the second round.

In the Classic 1.40m Spanish Championship the winner was Jesús Torres García with  a superb performance on the eight year old stallion ‘Diabetto PS’, who is by ‘Diaron’ x ‘Cento’ and owned Manilva Equestrian SL. In a big class of 28 riders the first round was really competitive as only the top ten moved on to the second round.

Jesús and had one pole in the second round bringing their championship score to 5.25 and taking gold.

Mariano Martínez Bastida's performance with 'Classica Dakota' was particularly noteworthy, despite starting the final in thirteenth place, thanks to a score of 6.19 from the qualifier rounds they were the only pair to go clear in both of the final rounds and ended up taking silver.

Bronze went to Kevin González de Zárate, this time with ‘Djoural de Lizet’ and a final score of 6.79 puntos (4 in the first final round and 2.79 from the very first qualifier. Kevin’s brother, Álvaro was fourth with ‘Stakkaldato PS’, on 8: 4 from the second qualifier and 4 in the second round of the final today.

This concludes an intense week of competition, ending the first phase of the 5th Andalucía October Tour with the celebration of the Spanish: Junior Dressage Championships, Junior Show Jumping Championships and the Championships for Absolute, Classic, Young Riders, and Young Horses. The second part of the October Tour will begin next week and will consist of three weeks of international competition, including a Nations Cup with 19 national teams and 12 FEI Ranking classes attracting top riders and horses from across the globe.