British Stamp their Success all over the Sunshine Tour!
Sunday 27 February 2011
British riders took four of the top five places in the opening Grand Prix of the Sunshine Tour showing the rest of Spain and the European riders participating in the tour the extent of talent we have for the season ahead.
Of the fifty one starters, there were only five clear rounds in the competition and with four of them being British it can only be a seen as a tremendous start to the season for World Class Showjumping Team Manager, Rob Hoekstra who was at the show assessing our performance. “We have some great horses and riders out on the tour and I’m thrilled that we have started so well. Some of the horses have really come out in fighting form and we should feel extremely confident in the depth of ability we have in our camp” said Rob before continuing “We will be assessing horses during the Tours with a view for the early team selections in May and I couldn’t have asked for more in the opening event”.
Taking a triumphant first place was David McPherson with the eye-catching ten year old Chamberlain Z who took pole position by jumping double clear in a time of 42.76, almost three seconds faster than Robert Whitaker who came in behind him on a time of 45.41 on the flamboyant nine year old USA Today, a horse he has been partnering for the past year since the British Open.
William Funnell, with Julie Slade’s Billy Angelo (a British Bred horse from the William and Donal Barnwell’s stud) produced an exceptional clear just a fraction of a second behind Robert to take third place with World Class identified young rider Tim Page and his thirteen year gelding Quentin Tarantino owned by Trevor Sturman taking fifth place just behind Spains Eduardo Alvarez Aznar.
For full results and further information on the sunshine tour, please visit their website at www.sunshinetour.net British Showjumping will continue to update regularly on our riders competing on the Tour so please visit www.britishshowjumping.co.uk regularly for up to date information or contact the Communications Team on 02476 698806
