Richard Howley and Fame jump to victory in Big Tour Vejer

In the very last seconds of the 1.50 speed class, with 105 top riders, the amazing Irish rider, Richard Howley flew around the grass David Broome arena, in 57.92s shaving off 0.03s from the current leader, Brazilian rider Pedro Veniss’s time. Richard was riding Sarah Borthwick’s 13yr old stallion ‘Fame’, a ride he took on for her back in 2019 and with whom he has developed a super partnership. ‘Fame is by ‘VDL Harley’, dam sire ‘Investment’. Up to that point Pedro had looked pretty unbeatable, with the stallion ‘Boeckmanns Lord Pezi Junior’ owned by Camila Veniss, but in the end they had to make do with second place. The early leader in the class was another very fast German rider, Michael Viehweg with ‘Comanche 29’ who also finished in under 60s taking third.  In fourth place was British James Smith with ‘Holly’ and fifth was the super young Irish rider and one of our past GP winners, Niamh McEvoy with ‘Aconzina PS’.

The Big Tour, 1.35, was held in arena 9 Guaraná Champeix. Once again a name we have all become very accustomed to seeing on the podium, British, Emma Stoker won the class with ‘Q Seven’, and now has nine wins in these last three weeks of the tour, so far! Her worst result in this class has been second place! Portuguese rider Duarte Seabra was second with ‘Fernhill Balou Beau’ and German rider, Marco Litterscheidt was third with ‘QPE’.

Another very successful rider here at the Andalucía Sunshine Tour 2023; is Spanish, Kevin González de Zárate who won the Medium Tour 1.45 class today on ‘Kilimanjaro van Overis Z’ in the Hickstead arena. The 40 top horses in this class qualified for the Medium Tour Invitational, 1.50 class on Sunday which is sponsored by the ‘Consejería de Turismo, Cultura y Deporte’ and co-financed by the European Union. The next two places were taken by British riders, James Smith with ‘Junos Rose 23’ and once again Emma Stoker this time with ‘Daisy’.

The Spanish were on top form in the Medium Tour 1.40 and 1.30 classes. Jesús Garmendia Echevarría winning the 1.40 with ‘Valut 2’, second was José Fumero Hernández with ‘Figuier du Roc’and third, Iván Serrano Sáez with ‘Gold Empire’. In the 1.30, Almudena Terrasa Moll was the winner with ‘Funny de la Roque Z’; Mariano Martínez Bastida was second with ‘Falbala Pironniere’ and third was María José Alcayde Selva with ‘Going for Gold van de Renger’.

In the Small Tour 1.40, the top three were British, Nicole Lockhead Anderson with ‘Emerald Irish Cruise’; Chris Smith with ‘Messarado Blue’ and Kayleigh Watts with ‘Sacino’.

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Photo©: Moisés Basallote
Source: Press Release