With such a large field moving on to the jump-off after producing clear rounds over Bernado Costa Cabral\u2019s first-round track, it was bound to be a race against the clock. The shortened track was twisting and turning its way around the large grass ring in the Oliva Nova arena, with seven fences that included a combination half-way.<\/p>\n
As first to go, Alvarez Moya and the only 8-year-old mare MHS Attraction (Numero Uno x Diamant de Semilly) set the time to beat at 40.32 seconds after some really tight turns and a good gallop the whole way around.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing first to go can sometimes be a bit hard, especially when there are a lot of riders in the jump-off \u2013 like today,\u201d Sergio commented. \u201cI did not want to go really fast, it was MHS Attraction\u2019s first Grand Prix today and she is really one for the future. So I just started with a bit of a rhythm, as she is anyway a naturally fast horse and then I slowed her down a bit before the three last jumps \u2013 doing eight strides down the final line where many of the others did seven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Alvarez Moya not going flat out, none of those to come could catch up with him \u2013 however hard they tried. In the end, only two more combinations managed to produce double clears \u2013 and much to the joy of the hosts they were both Spanish. Second place went to last weekend\u2019s Grand Prix winner Mikel Aizpurua Quiroga on Cartanya (Cartani 4 x Riverman) with a time of 43.50, while Carolina Aresu Garcia Obregon finished third in 44.80 riding Untrepide de Puychety (Mr Blue x Hand In A Glove). Ireland\u2019s Bertram Allen managed to push the time down to the 38-second mark, but paid the price on the third-last upright aboard Hector\u00a0van d\u2019Abdijhoeve (Cabrio van de Heffinck x Utrillo) and had to settle for fourth, while fifth place went to France\u2019s Aldrick Cheronnet on Uris de La Roque (Capital x Quick Star) \u2013 also on four faults.<\/p>\n
MHS Attraction came to Alvarez Moya in the autumn of 2017, after his brother spotted her at the World Championships for Young Horses in Lanaken, Belgium. \u201cI did not take her to any shows before in January this year, when she came with here to Oliva. I just kept it quiet, working her at home. She is a really promising horse, with amazing quality and has a lot of blood which makes her very light \u2013 she does not have to make a big effort when she jumps. I think in the near future, she will be one of my best horses \u2013 but I want to take it easy with her,\u201d Sergio said.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old Spanish Olympian is happy to come to the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour whenever he can, and finds the Tour a perfect place to bring up younger horses or simply train a bit with the more experienced ones. \u201cThe ground here is great, in the sand rings and the grass arena \u2013\u00a0and it is a very well-organized show. I always like to come here, and it is a great advantage to have such a show here in Spain,\u201d concluded Sergio.
\nThe Mediterranean Equestrian Tour now takes a break after four circuits of competition during the spring edition, and will return for the Autumn MET that runs from October 2-14 (Autumn MET I) and from October 23-November 11 (Autumn MET II).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was all about Spanish home hero Sergio Alvarez Moya in Sunday\u2019s CSI2* Grand Prix presented by Oliva Nova Beach and Golf Resort at the Spring MET IV 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-met-2018-en-fr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25353,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25328\/revisions\/25353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}