Press Release Sunshine Tour – British rider Joe Whitaker has won the 1.50m Big Tour D, Cruzcampo sponsored GP today. The jump off was extremely fast and skilfully ridden by the 14 riders that had qualified. Joe Whitaker, riding Lola was the penultimate rider to go, he was chasing a time of 40.36sec from the Ukrainian rider Ferenc Szentirmai with Zipper. Riding a very technical jump off course, from international Italian designer Uliano Vezzani, he shaved off less than a second to finish in a time of 39.52sec. Emma Augier de Moussac also rode a very neat and fast round on her mount Kanonja and she finished in a well deserved 3rd place, in 40.41sec.
The 12 top placed riders in this class have now qualified for the Invitational GP that will be held on Sunday at 14:30, in arena 3, the David Broome Arena. This is the climax of the Sunshine Tour as it not only carries points towards Olympic qualification for the Games in Rio de Janeiro this year but also has prize money of 100,000 euros!
In the other classes today the results are as follows
The 1.45m Big Tour C, was won by the Brazilian Carlos Eduardo Mota Ribas riding Wilexo, in 2nd was Bruce Goodin with Baloppi for New Zealand and in 3rd, Brazil once again, with Luiz Francisco de Azevedo riding Collin.
In the 1.40m Big Tour B, the winner was Bernard Briand with Chattano for France followed by Vincent Voorn with Dante for the Netherlands and Shane Breen with Guidam Van Het Achterhoek for Ireland.
In the 1.35m Big Tour A2, British rider Matthew Sampson with Dolanda was 1st, Belgian rider Ugo Berritella with Zaragosa, 2nd and British rider Sally Hopkinson with Cartouche II, 3rd.
In the Big Tour A1, Spanish rider José Bono riding Iroko V/D Brouwershoeve and Carolina Aresu with Xica were 1st and 2nd, swapping around their places from yesterday and Louise Whitaker with Cleopatra was 3rd.
In the Amateur classes
British riders took all top places in the 1.40m Classic Tour D. Chloe Breen took both 1st with Zidane VIII and 3rd with Zooey and Jake Aston with Wise Guy squeezed into 2nd place.
British rider Kayleigh Watts and Zantos II once again won the 1.30m Classic Tour C. Indian rider Rishit Gupta with Valetta was 2nd and Spanish rider Fernando Urrutia with Jaleo was 3rd.
Shiekh Samir Mirdad with Mirdads Boooraaq was the winner of both the Classic Tour B and, riding his other horse Mirdads Nayyyarat, he also won the Classic Tour A.
The other results for the Classic Tour B were British, Bethanie Knight with Dior in 2nd and Irish rider Paul Beecher with Britt M in 3rd.
The other results for the Classic Tour A were British Emily Smallman with Tullineaskey Diamond in 2nd and the Portuguese rider Joao Bueno with Uranus D’Escaussines in 3rd.
Tomorrow there are around 10 classes, including the Small GP that has prize money of 24,600 euros. This is also a FEI Longinus Ranking class. Classes will start at 10.00 and will continue throughout the day until about 17:00. This is the penultimate day of international jumping at the Dehesa Montenmedio as this Sunshine Tour XXII will come to an end on Sunday. So why not take the opportunity to come visit us and watch these elite riders competing live.
Source: Press Release Sunshine Tour
