Scott Brash wins the Stephex Grand Prix Longines Ranking, with Hello Valentino
Sameh El Dahan with ‘WKD Aimez Moi’; Helmut Schönstetter with ‘Anton SBK Z’ and Steve Guerdat with ‘Easy Star de Talma’: winners yesterday’s Ranking classes
Vejer, 11th February 2024. Scott Brash is currently number 32 in the FEI, World Longines rankings and is one of the best known British riders in the world. Yesterday he showed his great talents as a rider, winning the1.55m Stephex Grand Prix here at the Andalucía Sunshine Tour, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the Government of Andalucía, through Tourism and Sports of Andalucía.
Scott was riding the 10 year old, ’Hello Valentino’ who is by’ Diamantino’, dam sire ‘Careful 28’ and owned by Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham. He told us after his win with ‘Hello Valentino’; “I thought he jumper super, I’ve struggled a little bit with the rideability….. but he gets away with it because he so quality in his jump and I’ve just been working on that here at the Sunshine Tour, to improve the rideability. I wouldn’t say it was perfect yet but he jumped super and a great round to win”. Scott went on to tell us his goals for the season; “I’m just trying to bring him on, I want to produce him to be a 5* Grand Prix horse, consistently, and just really want to work on the rideability down here, the Sunshine Tour is great for that, the horse can get a lot of experience, we can ride them in a lot of different areas, grass sand, sunshine and rain” he chuckles, (it was rather wet yesterday!). “It’s all good, gives us a lot to work on and sets us up for the season”.
Scott and ‘Hello Valentino’ were the only pair to go clear in the 9 horse jump off in under 37s; in second place was Columbian, Rene López Lizarazo with ‘Driss de Kerglenn’ (‘Mylord Carthago*HN’ x ‘CAP Kennedy*Bois Margot’); in third, German rider, Kendra Claricia Brinkop with ‘In Time’ (‘Biscayo’ x ‘Tangelo Van De Zuuthoeve’). Fourth and fifth were taken by Austrian riders; Max Kühner with ‘EIC Quantum Robin V’ (‘Carambole’ x ‘Stakkato’) and Christoph Obernauer with ‘Kleons Renegade’. These are the top results in this GP, a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympics and the 2025 Europeans.
The Stephex GP was just the first of four Ranking classes held yesterday and there was another British win in the Medium Tour, Grand Prix. The course was set at 1.50 and the competition was hot. Our winner was the very popular Sameh El Dahan, who topped the podium with a cracking round ‘WKD Aimez Moi’ in a ten horse jump off.
In second was renown Irish rider, Bertram Allen with ‘Castigo de Amor’; third was Italian, Emanuele Camilli with ‘Chaccos’s Girlstar’; fourth, Maksymilian Wechta ‘Chepettano’ and fifth Rene López Lizarazo with his second podium place today, this time on Londina’.
Helmut Schönstetter , from Germany, with ‘Anton SBK Z’ were the winners of the Small Tour Grand Prix ranking in a jump off of seven horses. The Irish rider Ivan Dalton was second with ‘Plaisire D’Api’; Italian, Matteo Leonardi was third with ‘Daytona Della Caccia’; another Irish rider, Daniel Mc Alinden was fourth with ‘Java QP’ and British, Luke Barham ,was fifth with ‘Casalu-Blue PS’.
Swiss legend Steve Guerdat, who is currently third in the Longines Rankings, was the winner of the second Small Tour Ranking Grand Prix that was held yesterday. This was a 1.45m class. He was riding‘Easy Star de Talma’, a ten year old stallion by‘Quick Star’ x ‘Opium de Talma’. Second was another Olympian, French, Penélope Leprevost with ‘Fantasy de la Roque Z’ and in third was the Polish rider, Andrzej Oplatek with ‘Le Cordial’. The top five places were completed by Dutch, Roosje Brouwer with ‘Kerswin Van’t Roosakker’ and another top French rider, Alix Ragot with ‘Diaz de USH’.
The CSI1* Grand Prix was set at 1.35m and won by Helmut Schönstetter who was riding ‘Campino MR’ in this class; this is a nine year old, by ‘Colestus’ x ‘Clinton’. In second was Spanish rider, Almudena Terrasa Moll with ‘Funny de la Roque Z’ and third was Irish rider, Max O’Reilly Hyland with ‘Babar de Bussy. Fourth was British; Olivia Gent with ‘Avant Garde HST Z’ and fifth Moroccan, Badr Khiati with ‘Numax’.
For the rest of yesterday’s results:
Spanish, Kevin Gonzalez de Zarate and ‘Cantuccini’ were the winers of the Big Tour 1.45; Italian,Luca Moneta with ‘Chilli 41’ continues their successes here, yesterday winning the Big Tour 1.35; Irish rider, Patrick Hickey with ‘Claudine Fly’ were the winners of the Medium Tour 1.40; Dutch rider, Yoni Van Santvoort with ‘Dilly Dally Z’ were the winners of the Medium Tour 1.30 and Swedish, Lily Tegnestedt with ‘Dakar Van de Star Z’, won the Medium Tour 1.20.
The Small Tour 1.40 was won by Spanish, Joes Fumero Hernandez with ‘Figuier du Roc’ and the 1.30 was won by Irish, Daniel Mc Alinden with ‘AHG Whiterock Doctor Cruise’.
The CSI1*results:
Janne Ruskeeniemi from Finland was one of the winners in the 1.25 with ‘Harvie’ and the other winner was British, Joshua Hutchins with ‘Billy Sarafina’. Moroccan, Safouane Laamal won the 1.10 with ‘INXS Du Finiels’.
This wraps up the first week of the 30th Andalucía Sunshine Tour 2024. Competition next week starts as usual on Tuesday, with the Young Horse 5, 6, 7 and 8 year old classes.
Press release prensa sunshinetour – Picture of Scott Brash, the winner of GP Stephex, by Mackenzie Clark (c)
