The Spanish national anthem played twice today at the SunshineTour with a great day for national riders, thanks to the victories of Manuel Añón in the Big Gran Prix and Teresa Blázquez in the Classic Tour Gran Prix.
Manuel Añón was unbeatable in the jump off with a time of 44.07sec on Rackel Chavannaise, thus finishing off his first week of competition here, in fine form. Interviewed after his win he said “This is my first competition of the year. I have come to Montenmedio to prepare my horses and then I plan the rest of the season, although a couple of my horses are recuperating from injury so far they have felt great and I could not have had a better start. It has been a while since I had a clear round in a jump off, so this was a very satisfying day and an excellent start to this testing Olympic year”.
Manuel Fernández Saro riding Coreall, for Spain took 2nd place. The current Spanish National Champion stopped the clock in 44.26sec. The French rider Penelope Leprevost, who lies 4th in the FEI Longines Rankings, and her superb mare Flora de Mariposa were 3rd in 44.45sec. Penelope Leprevost explained that she is starting off her Rio Olympic preparation here at the Sunshine Tour and that this is her first outdoor event since the World Cup in Geneva. “This is an excellent place not only for preparing young horses but also to be able to compete at the highest level, especially considering the really exceptional quality of the arenas.”
In the rest of today’s Big Tour classes the British and the Spanish were well represented.
Louise Saywell won the Big Tour C with Patrol V, 2nd was Penelope Leprevost with Hija Van Strokapelle and the New Zealand rider Bruce Goodin with Chagrannus was 3rd. Big Tour B was won by the Spanish rider Kevin González de Zárate with Comptesse VD Withoe, whilst the Belgian rider Gregory Wathelet with Quasi Modo was 2nd and the Swedish rider Jonna Ekberg with Isibel D’O was 3rd. The Brits Matthew Sampson riding Dolanda won the A2 class and Joe Whitaker with Twilght Van Het Reitv won the A1 class.
The Spanish rider Teresa Blázquez with Carola was the winner of the Classic Tour GP, stopping the clock in the jump off of 10 riders in a very fast time of 37.93sec. The Brazilian rider Caio Calvalho with Sun Flower du Theil was 2nd in 38.53sec and another Spanish rider, Paloma Jiménez with Sherie Star was 3rd in 38.93sec.
In the Classic Tour there were also many Spanish and British winners. Javier González and Casanova won the1.30m and Kerry Grimster with All Rise was 1st in the 1.20m. Eleanor Jane Hall Mcateer with Blush won the 1.10m class.
Tomorrow is a day of rest and we begin a new cycle of the show on Tuesday with the Young Horse Classes.
Source: Press release Sunshine Tour
