The bullfight lasted almost two and a half hours, but it gave the impression that it had started a week earlier; it has been one of those events from which the spectator leaves with back and knee pain, and with spirits low, determined not to return to the bulls… until tomorrow, which will be another day, and who knows if the longed-for excitement will take center stage.
The culprits of today’s drowsiness were mainly the Saltillo bulls, tiresome, boring, dull, tame, complicated, and ambiguous; yes, ambiguous because they came readily to the horses, but some raised their heads and threw goring at the peto, and others fled shamelessly. The bulls fought in first and third place showed breed in their behavior, but a breed without class, both spiritless, and the sixth, which repeated at the muleta, was difficult and excessively dull. They humbled at the beginning of the muletazos and raised their heads towards the clouds at the end of them. And there were impossible ones, like the second, which did not stop running from its exit until its journey to the beyond, at its own pace, distracted, absolutely indifferent to the deceits, which it approached when it found them in its path, but with no intention at all.
In short, the event became eternal, extremely boring, and the three bullfighters were unable to dispel the boredom that took over the arena.
None of the three holds the status of a star, all three are in need of a triumph to straighten their careers, but all three crashed their hopes against the wall of bulls that had no interest in their soul to contribute to the prestige of their house or their bullfighters.
It is also noticeable that all three fight little. José Carlos Venegas, for example, did not dress in lights last season, and that shows no matter how much determination the bullfighter tries to show. He found, first, the bull that perhaps offered the most possibilities, brave and of low mobility, from which he stole some decent redondos, but no more. Venegas lacked the step forward that experience allows; he looked insecure, with that feeling of incapacity caused by inactivity, but he has good taste, extends the muletazos, and seems to deserve more opportunities than he has been given. Today was one of them and… Neither did his second allow him confidence, uncertain, rough, throwing tornillazos…
Juan Leal justified himself amply with the useless lot he drew. The roadrunner that came out second was impossible, which he managed to hold back at some moments and trace a series of acceptable naturales; very tame, dull, and without any quality was the fifth, the patch from Couto de Fornilhos, with which he did not back down, which is no small thing.
And the Colombian Juan de Castilla did not quite confirm that the hopes placed in his bullfighting are true. Perhaps he is still not recovered from the very serious accident he suffered in January in Manizales, but the truth is that he veroniqueó with pleasure to his first and started the muleta work with a series of tight redondos with both knees on the ground; but neither did the animal give itself in its charges, nor did the bullfighter go beyond a spiritless and sad performance. The sixth repeated the charges, difficult like all, with the head up at the end of the muletazos, like all, too, and what seemed like it could take off remained a spirited but low-brightness performance.
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A soporific bullfight and a dark horizon for the three bullfighters. And none of them disappointed.
Saltillo/Venegas, Leal, De Castilla
Five bulls from Saltillo, uneven in presentation, tame and very dull; first and third, brave and of little quality; first and sixth, the only ones that fulfilled at the horses. The fifth, from Couto de Fornilhos, correct in presentation and very tame.
José Carlos Venegas: almost full tendida (ovation); almost full tendida and a descabello (silence).
Juan Leal: almost full tendida and baja (silence); rear and detached estocada _aviso_ (silence).
Juan de Castilla: estocada _aviso_ (applause); half atraviesa, two pinchazos _aviso_ two pinchazos and half estocada (silence).
Las Ventas bullring. May 20. Eleventh event of the San Isidro Fair. Three quarters full (17,687 spectators, according to the company).
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