The view from the sofa,
my thoughts on corridas I have watched on TV.
El Freixo novillos for Joaquín
Galdós, Leo Valadez & David Bolsico
An international novillada to open the Feria
de Olivenza, the season’s first glamour stop. Despite this plaza’s taste for
figuras and comfortable bulls, it always carries one or two novilladas over the
weekend. A welcome addition to any feria. The international flavour is given by
Joaquín Galdós, a young Peruvian who is hoping to follow in the footstep of his
countryman Roca Rey, and Leo Valadez, from Aguascalientes. David Bolsico, a local debutant, closes today’s cartel. The novilleros
are facing a corrida from El Freixo, El
Juli’s ganadería. These animals are a fixture in Olivenza’s
novilladas and tend to be small, mobile and entertaining.
It took Joaquín Galdós some time to focus the opening novillo on his capote, a couple of tester capotazos preceded a well linked
series of veronicas. The novillo repeated with intensity, but tended to stay
short at the end of each lance. The sole pic of the lidia was low, and given by
the reserve picador, but the novillo did little of note at the horse. Galdós
began his faena with acceptable doblones. The bull had showed itself to be obedient, albeit with a rough and informal charge. The faena was characterised by the
animal’s raspy charge and Galdós inability to give it the right timing and
distance with his muleta. It was a long faena, but Galdós gave few passes of
any note or quality. On the odd occasions that he timed the bull well and
stayed firm Joaquín managed a worthy series – but there were only two of these
in the whole faena. Far too little given the length of the performance. Galdós
completed his work with a full estocada that gave way to an inexplicable
petition for an ear that was, correctly in my mind, rejected by the president.
The fourth novillo took a long, and unnecessarily
punishing couple of pics. Despite the poor lidia, the second pic allow Leo Valadez to
perform a tight, emotive, if somewhat scruffy, quite by chicuelinas. Muleta in
hand, Galdós was correct, but the faena was boring. His toreo was clean,
controlled and, on occasion, well linked. But it was entirely vacant of
emotion. The animal had a noble and compliant charge, and Galdós felt at
ease. However, when toreo is easy and comfortable, it is usually tedious. Today
was a good example. A full estocada completed an underwhelming afternoon.
Leo Valadez tried to be involved with the
capote, performing veronicas as the novillo entered into the ring and
chicuelinas to take the bull to the horse – both were cut short by enganchones.
Thankfully, his quite by saltilleras improved matters and the four passes were
executed cleanly and closely. Valadez places his own banderillas, and covered
this tercio with aplomb. The first two pairs al cuarteo, the second of which
was preceded by a pleasingly arrogant quiebro in los medios, were placed cleanly and squarely
before the horns. He closed the tercio with a tight par al queibro. The novillo
was mobile, classy and compliant – it required gentle lures in order to tease
and channel its noble charge. Valadez was up to the task, performing a long
faena of clean well linked passes. There was little wrong with the faena, from
a technical perspective, but I still had the feeling that the entire
performance came across as cold. A couple of moments stood out, such as his
excellent first series of naturales, but for the most part I was left unmoved.
Nodding approvingly, but unmoved. Good sword work might have yielded an ear,
but Leo required countless pinchazos before finally capping the work with an
estocada al encuentro.
Valadez met his second novillo with a number
of genuflected tijerillas, followed by some pleasing, low veronicas. The
regulation pic gave way to a well-executed quite by lopecinas. Leo once again
took the banderillas, managing three clean and acceptable pairs de poder a
poder in various terrains. The bull was noble, but distracted and tended to
gazapear. On the basis of firm determination and, above all, good timing, Leo
Valadez managed to constructed a sober and acceptable faena. It was founded on
good toreo en redondo, which was technically sound, although perhaps lacking in
emotive passion. The highlight was a beautifully smooth series of naturales. In
good novillero style, his finished with some tight kneeling manoletinas – the raw
emotion that his fundamental toreo lacked was presence in the cylonic
conclusion. Effective sword work allowed him to cut the afternoon’s first and only ear.
David Bolsico introduced himself with a
spectacular recibo capotero by gaoneras – it was not the most canonical
opening, but it showed a confident and capable use of the cape. His involvement
during quites once again displayed David’s ability with capote; the debutant
caused an excellent impression during the first two tercios. He managed the cape
with ease, stayed still and showed he wanted
to create a spectacle. Unfortunately, his muleta work was poor. He
continued to stay still, but his work lacked timing and was muddied by multiple
enganchones. Bolisco’s sword work was worse as he conspired with his tercero to
create a sorry spectacle as they both failed to conclude the lidia swiftly and
neatly.
Bolisco once again shone with the capote
during his second novillo. This time his recibo by veronicas was purer, but no
less effective. He took the animal to the horse with a bright galleo. The
novillo pushed hard, with one horn, at the horse during a long pic. The bull
was mobile but distracted – the question was whether David could manage his
muleta correctly. Despite a serious looking tossing at the start of the faena (caused
by poor positioning while trying to execute an estatuario in the centre of the
ring) Bolisco was much better during this novillo. His timing was excellent,
the enganchones all but disappeared, and with it he was able to link several
worthy series en redondo. As the corrida was coming to a close, the heavens
opened and David was forced to deal with the natural opponents of rain and wind
while trying to complete his work. Bolisco was able to overcome these
(although they prevented proper toreo al natural) allowing his to construct a
dignified faena. A pinchazo preceded the estocada and a the chance of a
possible prize went with it.
Thus ended an ultimately underwhelming novillada. The animals were not particularly noteworthy, lacking piquancy and bravery, but they deserved better than the Ycold, rough treatment that predominated in this corrida. Given their inexperience, Valadez and Bolisco can be forgivenforbtheirnperdormance. They also each produced several moments of notes hiring the afternoon. Galdós' performance, a mere three months before his alternativa, was far more disconcerting.
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