Edited press release from Oxer Sport

With two world ranking classes on the program – the 1.50m Medium Tour Grand Prix and the 1.45m Small Grand Prix of the Big Tour – Saturday was packed with action at the Sunshine Tour in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain. 

The 1.50m Medium Tour Grand Prix was held in the David Broome main arena, and had 78 horse-and-rider combinations entered – 17 of them moved on to the jump-off. After fierce competition, the winner of this class was the Swedish rider Douglas Lindelöw with Cheldon (Chacco-Blue x Baloubet du Rouet). “He jumped very well today, in both the first round and the jump-off,” Lindelöw commented about the 12-year-old gelding’s performances. 

Lindelöw is at the Sunshine Tour for the first time and intends to stay for the full seven weeks of competition. “It’s a fabulous place, I love it!” the Swedish rider said. 

Japan’s Eiken Sato and Chacanno (Chacco-Blue x Kannan) had to settle for second place, 1.19 seconds behind Lindelöw. “I am very pleased with second place in this class. My horse jumped fantastically well. I have had Chaccano for two and a half years and he is a marvellous horse. I feel very grateful to have a horse this good to ride,” Sato said.

Sato will also be at the Sunshine Tour for the full duration and will afterwards return to Germany and do a few competitions there. “Later in the year, we hope to go to the Olympic Games. Let’s see what happens!” Sato commented. 

Third place in this class went to another Swedish rider; Angelie Von Essen with the 16-year-old mare Cochella (Cartani 4 x Lord). 

The 1.45m Small Grand Prix of the Big Tour was sponsored by the world leaders in radio frequency therapy, INDIBA®.  David Will, the German rider whose name is becoming very familiar at the Tour, shot to the top spot with just under a second in hand over world number one Steve Guerdat from Switzerland. 

David Will knows what it is to win at the Sunshine Tour: During the first two weeks of the Tour, he has won three classes with Forest Gump 29 (Forsyth x Feuerwerk) – a 15-year-old gelding. “He never disappoints me, whenever we compete, he always wins something,” Will said. “He is a very small horse but a real fighter, a small horse with a big heart.”  

About the track for the Small Grand Prix, Will said: “It was one of those courses that when you walked, it appeared relatively straightforward. It gave you the impression that it wouldn’t be much of a problem to jump well, but later on it was clear that it was pretty complicated and there were a lot of faults. The line from fence 3 to fence 6 was tough and there were many ways to ride it.” 

Steve Guerdat’s time was 0.58s slower than Will’s, and in the end the Swiss rider had to settle for second place with the lovely mare Uranie de Belcour (Flipper d'Elle x Diamant de Semilly). In this very exciting jump-off, third place was taken by the Egyptian rider Mouda Zedaya with Galanthos SHK (Arthos R x Cantos).