Corrida of the Dax Feria 2025: fighting bulls, they only had the name

The lack of pedigree in Victoriano del Río's cattle hampered the results of this opening show. Only one trophy was awarded to Daniel Luque.

Sébastien Castella: silence and applause. Daniel Luque: 1 ear and applause. Pablo Aguado: silence and applause.

Six bulls from Victoriano del Río and Toros de Cortés ( ^5th ), weighed between 515 and 568 kilos (average 539 kilos). With a beautiful presentation, armor and size, the lot was pricked 12 times, before expressing a lack of breed and behavior that ruined the result of this opening bullfight of the Dax 2025 fair, this Wednesday, August 13.

As fighting bulls, they had only the name and glory of their elders. The two bulls named Cantaparajos, who finished in ^3rd and ^4th place, had nothing to do with their brilliant namesake, which had allowed El Juli to create a major work in Madrid on May 23, 2007. Faced with such a parade of balloons, the three bullfighters saw their hopes of triumph fly away like a helium balloon heading straight over a child.

Recipient of the City of Dax medal at the end of the paseo, Sébastien Castella (red and silver feria) did justice to this distinction. Despite his twenty-five-year career, many triumphs and injuries, the Béziers native displayed the enthusiasm of a first communion student. Let's remember his slow-motion curls against the first Victoriano, and the beginning of a faena sitting on the estribo against his second.

Daniel Luque (khaki green and gold) doesn't need a medal to shine in Dax. Up against a vicious first bull, as he saw from the first pass of the cape, the bullfighter asserted his authority right up close to the horns. His face turning pink as he laughed by the fire, Luque was rewarded with a trophy, before struggling in vain against the dismal fifth-place finisher.

Without a rival worthy of him, Pablo Aguado (raspberry and gold) showed his personality, cape in hand, then during muletazos with a very personal layout. However, with no bulls to act as a relay, the connection between the Sevillian and the public at the Dax Fair was not really established.

Full or almost. Wind and a few drops.