2026 Feria de San Isidro - Week 1
The week’s first Puerta Grande - Talavante on shoulders (Image Plaza1)
Prior to Madrid’s Feria de San Isidro starting, all looked set for a successful four weeks, at least in economic terms. Ten of the 27 consecutive festejos (ignoring the Monday ‘rest days’) were already sold out. The questions that remained were how successful the Feria would be in terms of triumphs on the Las Ventas sand and the quality of bulls fought.
May 8
Alejandro Talavante - here in a right-handed ‘natural’ - produced one of his best Madrid faenas (Image from Plaza1)
Alejandro Talavante did today what he did in Las Ventas last year - cut two ears and go out of the plaza’s Puerta Grande on the opening day of the Feria. A year ago, many felt the award over-generous, but that was not the case this time. The triumph came with the fourth Núñez del Cuvillo bull of the afternoon, ‘Ganador’, which came good in the faena. Talavante began with estatuarios, but the bulk of the faena saw the cloth held low, the matador standing straight, his many naturales particularly impressive. A fine estocada brought a merited two ears, while the vuelta en arrastre awarded ‘Ganador’ was somewhat excessive as the bull had not shown well en varas. Frenchman Tristan Barroso, confirming his alternativa, tended to go on too long but put on two strong performances with his animals, while Juan Ortega had another of his más a menos afternoons. This was a good opening corrida from Núñez del Cuvillo - and the first of several ‘No hay billetes’ festejos.
May 9
Tomás Rufo showed well but was let down by his swordwork (Image from Plaza1)
Another ‘No hay billetes’ afternoon, but the first of two San Isidro corridas from La Quinta was disappointing, with four bulls that brought nothing to la Fiesta, leaving Miguel Ángel Perera and Daniel Luque with no possibilities of success. The two best bulls were drawn by Tomás Rufo. The toledano had a tricky time with his first animal, which lifted its head towards the end of passes and was a rapid turner on its left horn. His second, ‘Carretero’, was an excellent animal; Rufo began the faena with toreo de poder, then moved on to tandas of linked derechazos and naturales, the bull showing its nobleza and the matador his complete engagement in his toreo. Unfortunately, Tomás is going through a bache with his swordwork at present, and a likely ear was lost with a bajonazo and three attempts to descabellar.
May 10
Román performed honestly and well in Madrid once more (Image from Plaza1)
Conde de Mayalde had two weak-footed bulls sent back to the corrales, but the four that remained provided good play. David Galván always seems to be unlucky in Las Ventas, and today was no exception. Taking on the two sobreros from Fermín Bohórquez, Galván was near to cutting an ear from his first, an impressive-looking animal, to which he gave some fine series of muletazos, only for lengthy setting-up for the kill, an aviso and a half-sword to dilute things. Circumstances had changed come his second faena, for the gaditano had been caught and injured during a quite on the third bull, and left the infirmary to torear his second animal as the last bull of the night. Heavily bandaged and in clear discomfort, David fulfilled his sole San Isidro contract, coping with an animal with an uncertain charge and killing well before returning to the enfermería. Gonzalo Caballero last appeared in Las Ventas four years ago and reckoned then he’d come back too soon from a serious injury. Fresh from a successful afternoon at nearby Las Rozas, this time he showed some pleasing capotazos con pies juntos on his first animal before kicking his shoes off for the faena, producing linked derechazos and single naturales, but with little style, and ending with prolonged swordwork. Gonzalo’s second bull was not an animal for a triumph, but the madrileño again put on a respectable showing. The windy afternoon’s triunfador was Román, who cited both his bulls from a distance. He focused mainly on naturales to his first animal, but that faena ended with four pinchazos and an estocada beside the boards. Derechazos were the main ingredient in the valenciano’s second faena, though there were some naturales too. Román kept the cloth low in stretching passes, his bull following the muleta beautifully, the passes increasing in closeness and the matador increasing in confidence as the series went on. A recibiendo kill led on to an ear, this writer being surprised at the lack of a strong petition for a second.
May 12
Álvaro Serrano on his way to the Puerta Grande (Image from Plaza1)
Notwithstanding José Carlos Arévalo’s comments elsewhere on this blog (see ‘Las Ventas and the challenges facing today’s novilleros’), the Feria de San Isidro usually features novilleros with a fair degree of experience, as today’s cartel illustrated. The novilleros were assisted by a terrific string of bulls from Montealto. The day before, Portuguese Tomás Bastos announced he would take the alternativa at Santander’s feria this July. First on, he had to cope with the wind that was a feature for the first half of the novillada and a hooking and bucking novillo, but managed some decent passes nevertheless. His second bull snatched the cape away from him during verónicas, Tomás starting the faena on his knees before moving on to linked derechazos and naturales. He showed a tendency to go on too long, while his killing was problematic, the youngster very nearly being caught on both his bulls. Martín Morilla, on his Madrid debut, sported a quaint traje with angels on it. His first montealto overturned the picador, proved more than Morilla could handle, and died from a pinchazo running round and a bajonazo. His second was strong to the horse like the rest of the string, but was today’s only really poor bull, giving the lad from Morón de la Frontera little chance of success. The madrileño Álvaro Serrano had a dream afternoon that ended with his being carried out through the Puerta Grande on shoulders after cutting an ear from each of his bulls. The first olés came as he met his first novillo with verónicas, initially from down on one knee, then standing. Bastos performed a fine quite of gaoneras, a larga and brionesa, to which Serrano responded with a lovely tanda of delantales. Álvaro would then not be put off by the wind, the youngster producing particularly impressive series of derechazos before killing with an estoconazo. A majority in the crowd petitioned for two ears: the presidente awarded one. Serrano greeted his second animal (which showed signs of mansedumbre) with caleserinas, a media verónica and a surprise larga. After dedicating to the tendidos, the novillero embarked on a relatively short, but varied, faena, producing pases ayudados, trincheras, desdenes, linked derechazos and two excellent tandas of naturales. Another estoconazo led to a lengthy death, the novillo finally being downed by a descabello just ahead of a third aviso sounding. A relieved public successfully petitioned for the ear that assured a major triumph for the home boy.
May 13
‘Alpargato’, one of the bulls that disappointed on Partido de Resina’s return to the San Isidro feria (Image from Plaza1)
The much-heralded return of Partido de Resina (formerly Pablo Romero) bulls to the San Isidro Feria resulted in disappointment. Some of the animals looked spectacular, but their behaviour was far from that that had given hope here in a desafío last September. The result was a boring afternoon for many spectators and a frustrating one for the toreros. Only Antonio Ferrera heard applause (after the lidia of the fourth bull); the lanky Mexican Calita received two silences; while Jesús Enrique Colombo received pitos on the last impossible bull of the day, when there had been a protracted tercio de banderillas in which the Venezuelan had eventually given up trying to place sticks in favour of his peones.
May 14
Daniel Luque (Image from Plaza1)
Today was the third ‘no hay billetes’ afternoon of the series, but was a disappointing festejo set in train by the withdrawal of the original string of El Parralejo bulls, after only two were approved by the veterinarians, and their substitution with Vellosino bulls that had been contracted to appear here in August. This was the seventh San Isidro event and already Daniel Luque’s second and final appearance in this year’s series. Perhaps for that reason he had more motivation to try and do something with today’s poor animals than either Sebastián Castella or David de Miranda, who both have further San Isidro afternoons ahead of them. Daniel, looking older every day, refused to be daunted by either of his opponents - his second bull a real monster at 610 kilos - and extracted meritorious single passes before killing with terrific estocadas. If I’d been in the plaza, I’d have got my handkerchief out after his second faena: as it was, Daniel had to make do with the corrida’s only ovation.
May 15
Today saw a 4th Madrid Puerta Grande for Fernando Adrián (Image Plaza1)
In addition to being marginalised by el sistema, Fernando Adrián seems to polarise his audiences. “Fernando Adrián left on shoulders without having given a single pass and after delivering two defective estocadas,” wrote Lucas Gutiérrez on burladero.tv. “In populistas faenas de pueblo, he was beneath his lote,” Gutiérrez continued, going on to declaim the matador’s lack of control, his “lack of art or grace”, his placement and misuse of the pico. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fernando Adrián achieved his fourth Puerta Grande at Las Ventas by thinking carefully about the toreo he could give his two bulls, being both artful and entertaining, and, every so often, being willing to cross the line and risk injury. His second El Torero bull clearly communicated its abilities, lifting Adrián nastily during the opening capework and, later, conducting a terrifying triple tossing of banderillero Curro Javier. Adrián also killed well, downing each of his bulls with estocadas that didn’t require any descabello back-up and led to the award of an ear to the matador from each animal.
A battered Fortes also claimed an ear (Image Plaza1)
A fine-looking string of El Torero bulls (and another full house) also saw an ear won by Saúl Jiménez Fortes. His first bull sent the malagueño to the ground in the opening tercio, the matador returning to the fray with bruising, swelling and a cut to his face, but opting to kill the animal after another cogida during its faena. Following an operation on the 5cm. wound that produced in his right leg, he came back from the infirmary to torear his second bull, producing a sober faena, mainly of single naturales, before killing well, the bull dying quickly and its matador winning an ear. There was a minority petition for Diego Urdiales after the riojano had killed his second bull and had produced several classic single passes on both his animals.
May 16
An impressive confirmación de alternativa - Manuel Diosleguarde (Image Plaza1)
This second San Isidro corrida of La Quinta bulls was marginally better than the first, although only the first two animals out of the toriles gave opportunities for success. Today was the confirmación de alternativa of Manuel Diosleguarde, who became a matador de toros in 2022 and was very nearly killed by a bull in his fourth corrida that same year. The tall young salmantino rightly claimed the headlines in reports of today’s corrida with two impressive performances on none-too-easy bulls. He probably would have won an ear from his first, Diosleguarde bravely standing up to its powerful charges and securing linked passes, but needing two attempts with the estoque to kill it. He was able to achieve lower muletazos on his second bull, but this time could achieve little on the left hand, the faena ending with a media estocada and several descabellos. Manuel Jesús El Cid showed characteristically poor swordwork on both his bulls, the first exhibiting nobleza while his second was manso. With the two bulls at his disposal, Álvaro Lorenzo had no opportunity to achieve a much-needed Madrid success.