The Plaza de Las Ventas was drawn as a reddish bas-relief on a black horizon full of storms. It thundered the sky like a distant threat before a blue vortex opened like a skylight with the same round shape of the arena. There were 20 minutes left for the start of the most anticipated bullfight, which before ended the ticket at the box office of the entire San Isidro fair. Two months ago. The convening power of Roca Rey, well clothed, also in Madrid. Poster of overflowing atmosphere and, therefore, with the "7" being felt from the promenade: they took the license plate, bit the prey and did not let go. RR did not overcome the atmosphere or take out the baton of command of the maximum figure of bullfighting.

And why did we want more: a bull from Valdefresno appeared breaking square with the precise power, loose of meats, expensive workmanship and seriousness ahead. A promising tranquito and humiliation in the first throws of Manzanares, the temperance of not walking left over from anything. Bravo on the horse, pinned with pins, measured the punishment. At the auction of the inauspicious remove of Justo by chicuelinas, he gave up. A thunderous uproar of protests. Bravery would be his support with the remora of his trembling rear supports. And the temper at its height of JMM. That he built a task of good drawing. Also on his left although in the natural room he packed it unfailingly. And the bull, who made the plane, lost his hands. I'm slow to say that I loved the air of the bull. What's more: I think in another order of fighting and with another bullfighter with more ambition to turn the tables on him. Manzanares went well and killed him better.
President Ignacio Sanjuán was wrong to return the second, first of the livestock of Puerto de San Lorenzo. He gave in, frightened, to the pressure. He had given no more reasons than the previous one. And he had also written things down. The hat of El Vellosino, cinqueño, chestnut, grandón, a ship of meekness, camped at ease from his abanta exit, barbering boards. No one at the controls. There Roca Rey crossed in a remove without major brightness.

Emilio de Justo, who was returning from his Puerta Grande at half-mast, finally fixed it in the doubloons of the prologue of work. A round of forehands without removing the crutch from his face, surprisingly well placed, completely emptied the bull. That he did not want more and ignored a work without much faith and repeated insistence.


On Roca Rey fell, suddenly, all the pressure of the afternoon, the bullying of the "7" at the top of his lungs, as soon as the third appeared, from La Ventana del Puerto, which inaugurated the cinqueño section until the end. It said little, certainly, his expression, crowning his low and tertiary drawing. "Meow!" they shouted. He moved without finishing humiliating -more mobility than rhythm and quality-, but with travel and nobility by the right hand. RR, who came from an afternoon of not meeting the bulls of La Quinta, did not end up being on this occasion either. A disarmament in the hood as a symptom. He was slow to get the point, which he achieved when he stopped taking it out of the lane. Since then the task went up, closely linked in two solid sets of forehands that turned the tense environment. But he short-circuited the digging bull, and maybe also the bullfighter, with the sticky left python shot. The animal cracked, the man was hooked. That he wanted to fix it with some terrifying bernadines. The fine and beautiful people standing. For some bernadines, I repeat. There was a chance, however, if he buried the sword. What he did of a tenacious bass -ferocious thermometer- after a puncture.


That he had rammed the room, so badly done and attacked from the front, a guy but very ugly, would have been a miracle. He did not pick up, he did not give himself and Manzanares passed him briefly.

The beauty was concentrated in the fifth, also from Puerto de San Lorenzo -the two in a single lot for I do not know what strange reasoning; and the lot in the hands of Emilio de Justo-. That the bull felt very soon in his hood, down there, genuflected the greeting. Like the principle of entire work on the right that made Madrid roar. By that hand the bull overturned a very expensive son. EdJ toreado him very slowly and linked until emptying huge chest passes. God, as Acevedo wrote, did not endow him with the gift of ease. But in his records you could not be better. Or is it? However, the bull was not the same on the left – falling shorter – and Emilio wanted to bullfight it in the same way. Or in the same place. Without missing a step. One by one some natural. The task went up again in his right hand, a beautiful trench, the one with the chest of a python to the tail. A salvific rurún of possible trophy, but the sword got in the way. The remarkable bull crawled whole.


Definitely, when he jumped the sixth it was found that the run went badly, beyond the question of iron. The bulky head of the specimen of La Ventana del Puerto on a smaller body. That attacked very straight, letting go of the face and tangling with the wind. Roca Rey stood brave, yes, but with a halo of defeat when it came to fine-tuning the resolutions. He did not climb the slab of the other afternoon or today. He succumbed to insatiable bullying until the end – "novillero!" they beat him – but not only: the King did not exhibit in Madrid the baton of command of the maximum figure.

You can buy tickets for the San Isidro Fair here.

Token

MONUMENTAL OF LAS VENTAS. Thursday, May 25, 2023. Fourteenth fair. Full of "no tickets". Mountains of Puerto de San Lorenzo (2nd and 5th), La Ventana del Puerto (3rd, 4th and 6th) and Valdefresno (1st); cinqueños the last four; and a hat by El Vellosino (2nd bis); of fiferent workmanship, serialities and auctions; 1st and the remarkable 5th stood out; of good right python without finishing humiliating the 3rd.
MANZANARES, of Carmelite and gold. Lunge (greetings); puncture and lunge (silence); puncture and lunge (silence).
OF JUST, of crimson and gold. Puncture and lunge detached (silence); puncture and lunge. Notice (request and greetings).
ROCA REY, black and gold. Puncture and bass. Notice (palms); corner lunge (silence).

  • Bulls
  • Andres Roca King
  • José María Manzanares Jr.
  • Articles Zabala de la Serna

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