VICTORY in the CSI4* Grand Prix at Vejer de la Frontera when to Ireland's Peter Moloney and the Team Harmony mare Ornellaia, sponsored by Caser Serguros.

Over the last four days, more than 650 horses have taken to the arenas during an intense schedule of top level competition.

There were just five riders through to the jump-off of this impressive class with the Belgian rider Gudrun Pattet just missing out on one time fault. First to go was the Swiss rider Carlo Pfyffer and the crowd held their collective breath as he flew round with a neat clear. He was just pipped at the post by Ornellaia who took the lead, with just under second in hand.

Swedish international rider Frederik Jönsson rode to win but couldn’t quite catch the other two and his time placed him into third. Julio Arias and Cork's Billy Twomey both had a pole down and took fourth and fifth respectively.

Javier Trenor was the course designer today and commented: “For the first CSI4* here at the Tour and being the beginning of the season, the track was sufficiently big and technical. It rode a little harder than I thought it might but this is maybe because the horses are not quite yet on form. It’s true that the time allowed should have been a little tighter but this did help make the track a little more comfortable to jump.”

In the 1.45m Big Tour, the Irish were also on top form, Sligo's Richard Howley, last week’s winner of the GP, easily took this class with Cruising Star being nearly three seconds faster than the British rider, Max Routledge who was second.

The 1.45m Amateur GP class, sponsored by the Ayuntamiento de Vejer, was also held in the David Broome arena. This class proved very testing for the competitors. From 50 combinations entered, only eight went through to the jump-off with the time allowed being the critical factor. In the end the American rider, Taylor Alexander, took a well deserved first place riding her stallion, by Quick Star, Ryanair de Riverland. Ballypatrick's Greg Broderick was also very fast but had to make do with second place whilst Stephan Naber was third.

TRIBUTE

It was a testing day of exciting classes at the Tour but also a very emotional day. The Blázquez and Arango families; and all of the people involved with the Sunshine Tour, dedicated today to the memory of the much loved and very sadly missed Alfonso Arango, who was a wonderful rider, loved by all and great missed at the Tour.