Vejer de La Frontera, Spain – February 21, 2021 – Today turned out to be one of the most important days of this week here at the second week of the Sunshine Tour, with two classes that were to be held tomorrow having been bought forward a day, the Medium Tour Grand Prix and the Small Grand Prix class of the Big Tour. The Small GP of the BT was sponsored by the world leaders in radio frequency therapy, INDIBA®. The German rider whose name is becoming very familiar here at the Tour, David Will (GER), shot to the top spot with just under a second in hand over the world number one ranked rider, Steve Guerdat (SUI).
David Will knows what it is to win here at the Sunshine Tour. In just these first two weeks of the Tour he has already won three classes with his amazing horse Forest Gump 29, who is a 15-year-old Oldenberg gelding (Forsyth x Feuerwerk). Once again, the dynamic duo were double clear, posting the fastest jump-off time among the 16 finalists, crossing the finish line in 30.54 seconds. The German rider plans to stay in Montenmedio for two more weeks and then return home for a rest.
Steve Guerdat’s (SUI) time was 0.58s slower than David and in the end had to settle for second place with the lovely mare, Uranie de Belcour (Flipper d’Elle x Diamant de Semilly), who he has been riding since June of 2020.
In this very exciting jump off, third place was taken by the Egyptian rider Mouda Zedaya (EGY) who was very hot on the two leaders’ heels. He rode Galanthos SHK (Arthos R), securing bronze honors in 32.05 seconds.
Winner’s Circle – David Will (GER)
“He never disappoints me, whenever we compete he always wins something.” I have had “Forest” “for two years and since the beginning he was part of my team of horses. He is a very small horse but a real fighter, a small horse with a big heart.” When you have done enough you all deserve a few weeks rest. The season in Germany doesn’t kick off until May so we have plenty of time and can afford to be relatively relaxed for a while.”
“I really enjoy [the course]. It was one of those courses that when you walked it appeared relatively straightforward. It gave you the impression that wouldn’t be much of a problem to jump well but later on it was clear that it was pretty complicated and there were a lot of faults. The line from fence 3 to fence 6 was tough and there were many ways to ride it.”
Final Results – €26,100 Indiba Small Grand Prix CSI 4*
1) David Will (GER) & Forest Gump 29 – 0 / 0 – 30.54
2) Steve Guerdat (SUI) & Uranie de Belcour – 0 / 0 – 31.56
3) Mouda Zeyada (EGY) & Galanthos SHK – 0 / 0 – 32.05
Source: Press release (edited) from the Sunshine Tour
Photos: © Sunshine Tour / Moises Basallote Fotografia
Categories: CSI 4*, English, Jumper News Deutschland
