Arkuga and James Smith were in spectacular form this afternoon, with a win in the 4* Diputación De Cadiz Grand Prix.
Messi and James clinched the win in a tight jump off of 8 riders, finishing just ahead of of Karl Robins and Equine America G Camille HBF in second place.
You can watch both of their rounds below.
Our wonderful homebred Arkuga (Messi) wins the €100,000 3* Grand Prix today in Vilamoura so grateful to James Smith for riding him so brilliantly these past few weeks having never sat on him before. He has already taken a win and 3rd in Ranking classes and placing another of the Grand Prixs.
John and I are so incredibly proud to have bred such a fabulous horse out of our exceptional mare, Beluga, by the great Arko and he has given us so many of these moments being such a natural born winner but after finishing 2nd on two previous occasions with me in the 3* Grand Prixs in Vilamoura he finally has the win he deserves. Thanks so much to the team out here, Ciara Miller and Nikki Park, for taking such great care of him. Thanks to James for being the brilliant rider he is and thanks to my sponsors.
Keep saying this but we are so grateful to Laura Mantel for not only riding our horses but winning on them! Today she won the 5 year old Championship at Bolesworth with Michelob (Tangelo van de Zuuthoeve x Orlando) the same final his full brother Labatt won last year and a few years ago his other full brother BINTANG won the 7 year old Championship! All British bred by the Bleekman family. Obviously some good genes there and I hope I recover well enough to ride these young stars. For those of your who don’t know I have had surgery on a broken pelvis and femur which I broke badly in a fall 6 weeks ago. It’s going to be long road to get back to where I was but with horses like this to inspire me I hope to be back in the saddle sooner rather than later.
Also exciting for our home breeding programme NFS Gem Twister (Murkas Gen Twist x Burgaraaf) was 3rd in this final. None of this would be possible without the back bone of our team, John, who is the driving force behind all of us #teamrenwick thanks also the Beth Byfield Ciara Miller and James Ironton for looking after them all so well and to all the team at home 🙏🏻
