Santander, Spain – June 30, 2019 – Kevin Gonzalez de Zarate (ESP) and Atlantic Z won the €24,500 CaixaBank Grand Prix CSI 2* last Sunday during the CSI 2* Santander at Palacio de la Magdalena in Santander, Cantabria, Spain.

The Alavés rider and the 12-year-old Zangersheide gelding (Air Jordan x Voltaire) claimed the victory by being the only ones to register double clear in the 1.45m challenge on the last day of competition of this 20th anniversary of the CSI 2* Santander.

There was excitement until the last minute in the stands of the Magdalena Field, in which a difficult course designed by Javier Trénor (ESP) complicated things  to a lot of the 17 combinations that participated in the Grand Prix.

Under a two-round format, only the top 5 in the first round managed to advance to the second round, and only one rider, Kevin González de Zárate (ESP), posted another clear performance.

José Fumero (ESP), Armando Trapote (ESP), Ivan Serrano (ESP), Jesús Garmendia (ESP) and Kevin González de Zárate (ESP) took all the risks right to the end, but it was Kevin who managed to win:

“I am happy to have won the Santander Grand Prix for the second year. The class was complicated, with the last line that was tricky, but the horse has given it all to the end. For the second round I’ve had a lot of doubts about whether to take a conservative course and secure the zero, or go faster and take a risk. In the end I thought that by speed I would not reach Ivan so I opted for the safest option and it has worked out for me” declared Kevin González de Zárate, Kevin “It is one of the most beautiful competiton in Europe, with a privileged environment that is very difficult to match. I encourage people to come to compete in the next editions”

For the next few weeks, the Alavés rider plans to participate in two national events in a row.

“My great challenge is to have a good performance during the  Casas Novas Grand Prix CSI 4*, in which I will compete with “Urbain des Grezils” and “Atlantic Z”.

Ivan Serrano (ESP), a local rider and one of the great of the national equestrians, settled for the second position with “Tam Tam du Valon” (Ogrion des Champs x Quidam de Revel) backed by a four penalty-points carried on from the first round and a final time of 46.76 seconds.

José Fumero (ESP) completed the podium with his newly acquired mount Vicompte de la Cour (Norway de La Lande x Vas Y Donc Longane), registering a total of four penalty-points, stopping the timers in 47.47 seconds in the round 2.

For full results, please click here.

Source: News release by Oxersport

Photo: © Oxersport