The Belgium national anthem was the first to be heard at this year’s Sunshine Tour in honour of Jerome Guery who won the GP Big Tour, D class, in fine style on Ginnis Van’t Geyzeven. Their time of 63.19 secs was unbeatable in this class sponsored by la Junta de Andalucía, but the British rider Guy Williams on Golddigger, had an electric round and jumped into 2nd place in 64.61 secs. Laura Robinson with Jonti also gave Britain 3rd place and was only just 3 seconds slower. There were 70 competitors in this class and the top 20 riders will be put forward for the Big GP on Sunday, this is the most important class of the week and counts towards the FEI Longines Rankings, with prize money of 40,000 euros.
The overall prize money this weekend is almost 150,00 euros and there are four classes that count for the FEI Longines Rankings. The first will be held tomorrow in the David Broome, main arena (Number 3) and will begin at 15.00. There are also eight official classes being held, with around 800 entries in all.
Today the first week of the Young Horse Classes, finished. Pippa Allen from Britain riding Carthagon GZ won the first 7yr old class, in second was Penélope Leprevost from France riding Very Nice de Talma and in 3rd was Leslie Pelat also from France, riding Vendredi Riverland. In the second section of the 7 yr olds the Belgian rider Maarten Driessen with Esprit repeated his win from the day before, The British riders Max Routledge riding Castletara Lady Lux and Robert Whitaker riding Expresso were 2nd and 3rd respectively. These were the very best of 141 competitors in this class with almost 100 horses adding another zero to their scores towards the Young Horse finals.
In the first section of the 6 yr olds Julio Arias won for Spain riding Koultan de Torres. The British rider Tim Page with Doonaveeragh Bunny won the second section. The Czech rider Emma Augier riding Brighton Bay and Max Routledge with Firkov du Rouet were 2nd in their sections whilst Chloe Aston with Kandahar and Louis Simmons with St. Tropez 8 came 3rd. There were 144 caballos in this class with 89 clear rounds counting towards the finals.
In the 5 yr olds the British riders took 1st and 2nd places Jade Couch with Giovanna and Ashlee Harrison on Gail de Semilly. The Swiss rider Tamara Jampen riding Asya dei Baisini was 3rd. There were nearly 100 riders in this category with 41 clear rounds counting towards the final.