On Friday morning with the temperatures around 16°C, the second day of the IPPOS SPRING TOUR 2024 in Thessaloniki started the program of seven events. The main trophy of the day in the CSI 2* Class 7 with the 145cm obstacles went to successful Italian Roberto Previtali, who continues his winning strike after taking first place in Class 2 yesterday. With his second place in the Class 5 with Hachiko in the morning, he becomes the most successful rider of the Tour so far.
The 31-year-old Previtali coming from Bergamo managed to dominate the main competition of the Friday´s IPPOS Spring Tour supported by Siafaras on the venue in Nea Redestos with his mare Come on Semilly. In the CSI 2* Class 7, he was riding two horses (Esteban de Hus and Come on Semilly) and hopes to repeat this success also on Sunday in the Grand Prix.
“The first horse is my best one. I hope on Sunday, it will be Esteban taking the trophy – after Hachiko and Come on Semilly. We came to try to win, so for sure, we tried. My horses are in super shape. I won with Come on Semilly which was already third on 1.40 yesterday. I was a little bit unlucky with Esteban that is my best horse because I had a really unlucky fault. But I am very glad about this result and we will see on Sunday about the Grand Prix,” said Previtali in the mixed zone.
The winner also liked the course: “I know the designer of this course very well as he is also Italian – Paolo Rossato and we know that he is one to the best course designers in Italy and in Europe. So yesterday, he saw the riders, and today, he prepared a nice course,” explained the Italian champion.
The rainy weather did not affect the performance of his horses. “It does not matter if it rains when the ground is good. This one is good and it was no problem.” Except ridding, Previtali usually does not have much free time: “Here, I have only three horses so it is like a holiday for me because normally I ride more. So I have more time and maybe I take a bit rest or will walk my horses.”
The second and third places stayed on the home soil as Greeks Alexandros Fourlis with his Idefix del Laghetto took silver and Athanasia-Maria Kyriakopoulou on Oakley won bronze medal.
“It was the first time I did a ranking class race. It was very nice in a wonderful place. Fortunately, the race went as well as we wanted. I’m not used to these heights. I’ve competed in 1.40m heights several times, but at 1.45m was the first time. I’m so glad it went so well,” said the bronze medallist Kyriakopoulou.
“My horse did great. The facility is incredible, the best in Greece at the moment. Everyone is trying hard to make us feel happy. I hope I will keep on improving and achieve more great results,” she added.
Early in the morning, the Romanian rider Aurel Cojocariu with his Hamilton managed to gain the first title of the day in the CSI 2* Class 5 competition on 135cm obstacles. The silver position went to the winner of the yesterday´s Class 2 competition Italian Roberto Previtali on his gelding Hachiko.
The three CSIYH1* competitions Class 6 followed on cloudy Friday. The Class 6a for the 5-year-old horses on 110cm went the best for the Greek Dimitri Natsis on Tjebert van de Marsweg. The 6-year-old horses jumping the 125cm obstacles were dominated by Greek Kriton Zafiropoulos with Ontario. The best among the 7y horses on 1.30m was Bulgarian Elisa Cholakova with her Apollo.
Last two events were the CSI1* competitions on 100cm and 120cm. On higher barriers, the large field of 52 horses was on the start list. The best one on these was Anna Irene Goset of Cyprus with her horse Cindy.
The Class 9 closed this busy competition day on Friday with the best performance of Nikoleta Pavlova of Bulgaria who clearly dominated the field with a fast run on her Kokolina.
The competition will continue on weekend with next categories finishing with the LR Grand Prix on Sunday. For more information about the event and the detailed competition schedule for the four-day periods of 9-12 May and 16-19 May, you can visit the website https://ipposclub.com/.