Alberto Zorzi comes top of the Sunshine Tour Small Grand Prix sponsored by the El Jundi Art Gallery

Show Jumping News :: Everything Horse :: Sunshine Tour

Alberto Zorzi riding Veronese Teamjoy wowed crowds in a thrilling jump-off to win the Small Grand Prix sponsored by the El Jundi Art Gallery at the Sunshine Tour, yesterday (29/02/2020).

The course proved to be very difficult, but, there were good clears by riders from Italy, France, Japan, Ireland and also two German brothers! In the end it was an exciting jump-off for the crowd watching and a very close finish. Alberto, with the 11yr old mare Veronese Teamjoy finished just 0.08 of a second faster than the Japanese rider Daisuke Fukushima, who also flew round the Milton arena on his lovely gelding Conblue, owned by Japan Equestrian. Jonathan Gordon came in third riding Dorotheental’s Classica.

The 1.40-145m, ’Cooking Almadraba’ Trophy was another important class of the day. The top three were lady riders, with first and third places taken by the Brits and Portugal taking second place. The winner was Alice Watson on her own mare Billy Lemon. Marina Frutuoso was once again on the winning podium, with the very successful mare Chassana and in third was the unstoppable Jessica Hewitt on yet another top mare, Chilli.

The German rider Kendra Claricia Brinkop has worked out the trick of winning here in the arenas at Montenmedio. For the third day in a row she has won the 1.35m class, this time with De Flipper, a 12yr old KWPN gelding from the Stephex stables. The owner of these stables and De Flipper, Stephan Conter, watched her winning round from the stands. Another absolute legend in showjumping was also here today, Nelson Pessoa who is staying until the end of the Tour. He has not seen the showground for a while and was surprised and delighted with the improvements and the expansion of the facilities, their high quality and the quality of the competitors.

The 1.40m class was won by Francisco José Mesquita Musa from Brazil. There were more than 100 horses in this class but his experienced ride, Sharapova Imperio Egipcio gave him a foot perfect round.

The Spanish rider José Antonio García Diana took first place in the 1.30m MT flying around the grass arena, Arrayan, with his 12yr old mare“Narla”.

Amongst the riders here we can also see quite a few eventers, many of whom are aiming for the Olympics this year, Pippa Funnell (GB), Christopher Burton (AUS) and from New Zealand and regulars here at the Tour, Jonelle and Tim Price, all here training their horses for the season ahead.

Today (Sunday) is the highlight of the week, the Big Tour Grand Prix sponsored by the Junta de Andalucía, bringing this third week to a close as we mark the halfway point of this year’s Sunshine Tour.

Suzanne Ashton

Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.