Vejer de la Frontera, Spain – Thursday, February 20, 2020 – The CSI 3* sprang in to action today with the Italian rider Michael Cristofoletti (ITA) taking the win in an intense session of top class jumping Michael rode the 12-year-old mare SIG Debalia (Zürich x Monaco) to victory and collected the Sentower Trophy from Laurens Meynaerts, the manager of Sentower Park the class sponsor.

“I am delighted with my mare; last week I jumped her in slightly smaller classes to ease her back in to competition as she has been off for two months. Today I arrived a bit late at the warm up and we didn’t really have enough time to prepare but even so, she is a very fast mare and we took the lead”. 

The Italian took the win from the British rider Matthew Sampson (GBR) with the 9-year-old gelding, Geneve R (Eldorado VD Zeshoek x Berlin), who had up to that moment been in the lead. The winning duo were clear in 59.22 seconds, just five-hundredths of a second faster than the runners-up.

Louis Koninckx (NED) was the course designer. He was responsible for the World Cup in Amsterdam last January.  There were 26 clears from the 81 competitors today and when asked about the course Cristofoletti stated:

“The course rode very well and the course designer did a great job to start off this week of jumping. The lines were good and left you with various options for strides. It was a smooth course but with an ebb and flow to it and was very interesting for the audiences to watch.”

Jason Foley (IRL) and Castlefield Vegas claimed third place backed by a penalty-free effort in 59.59 seconds.

For full results, please click here.

Source: Press release from Oxersport

Photo: © Oxersport