The Global Champions Tour of Spain began with 50 riders from 18 nations lining up to try and win a share of the 300’000 Euro total prize money up for grabs. Frank Rothenburg built courses that tested the best without being too demanding so everyone would get a good warm up before tomorrow’s Grand Prix. But an Olympic champion clearly needs less time to acclimatise than others. Arriving in Valencia only a couple of hours before his first class, Eric Lamaze came second in that and then galloped away with the second worth 6,000 Euro to the winner.
Sixteenn of the starters had jumped clean to get through to the jump off although a couple elected not to go in that round and save their horses for tomorrow, there were still thirteen others for the Canadian to beat. But by the time Lamaze entered the ring, Richard Spooner had already been eliminated when the notoriously difficult Cristallo point blank refused to jump the last fence and no one else had broken the 50 second barrier. So stopping the watch at 46.31 left the others all chasing the time. Next to go Timothee Anciaume on his giant European Championship mount Lamm de Fetan actually ended up next best as the French horse’s ground devouring stride got the job done in 46.83. Alvaro de Miranda was third on AD Untouchable and Cian O’Connor fourth on K Club Lady, a horse he found in Spain only months ago and has already been placed on at Lummen and Hagen recently.
Earlier Simone Delestre had a dream start to his GCT career when winning the opening speed class. Third to go in the ring he set a time of 51.21 that was never beaten although there were several good efforts to do so. In the end, riders from the other side of the Atlantic fared second best. Eric Lamaze taking second in 52.82 with his consistent winner Take Off and Richard Spooner making third spot on Pako, who went through the finish in 53.02. Richard had worked hard to earn this prize though. During the previous days warm up, Pako had taken violent exception to the screen at the edge of the arena. Richard had spent over a hour getting the horse used to it! “He is always a little bit like that with those sort of things but I am glad he got over it. As for this place, the arena reminds me of Monaco, which has been lucky for me, so I am hoping I will do OK here as well!” An impressive debutant was Cindy Van der Straten who trains with Jos Lansink and finished sixth. “For me, this was an amazing opportunity, so I am very happy. And I have never seen a show ground as beautiful as this one, so everything is special,” she said.
Full results and other details may be found on our website www.globalchampionstour.com.
~ by Lulu Kyriacou, GCT Press Agent
Results
Class 1
1. Simon Delestre (FRA) Orphee de L’illon, 0, 51.21, Euro 6000
2. Eric Lamaze (CAN), Take Off ,0, 52.82, Euro 4000
3. Richard Spooner (USA), Pako, 0, 53.02, Euro 3000
4. Patrick McEntee (AZE), Calva Mura Marais Z, 0, Euro 1600
Class 2
1. Eric Lamaze (CAN) Hickstead, 0,0, 46.31, Euro 6000
2. Timothee Anciaume (FRA) Lamm de Fetan, 0,0, 46.83, Euro 4000
3. Alvaro de Miranda (BRA) AD Untouchable, 0,0, 47.30, Euro 3000
4. Cian O’Connor (IRE) K Club Lady, 0,0, 47.96, Euro 1600
Quotes
Eric Lamaze -”Well I am loving this show so far, I only got off the plane a couple of hours ago and so far it is treating me well!”
Cian O’Connor- “Both my top horses have come from Spain. This one has a super attitude and I wanted her as soon as I saw her on the Spanish Sunshine Tour. I just fell in love! But I must say that Tino Torres has done a beautiful job producing her (she was formerly called Olanda K), I have just had to get on with it.”
More from Horse Sport:
