An interesting (and televised) San Isidro in prospect

The changes that are afoot in some aspects of the mundillo’s ways of doing things were demonstrated by the various website articles on potential San Isidro carteles that appeared around Christmas and the New Year. In the end, a full set of almost completely accurate dates and carteles was published as early as January 15. The official publication of the contents of what looks, on paper, to be a very interesting feria, running from May 9 to the Corrida in Memoriam on June 15, came at a launch gala held on February 6.

With the current leading matadors - Roca Rey, Morante de la Puebla, Alejandro Talavante and Daniel Luque - presumably opting to limit their participation to two appearances during the month-long series, Plaza1 has opted to build the feria around six toreros who’ve been given three appearances apiece. Three of these are unsurprising - Miguel Ángel Perera has the highest number of exits through Las Ventas’ puerta grande of all active toreros; Emilio de Justo has long been a Madrid favourite; while Tomás Rufo’s career is now in the hands of the gerente of Las Ventas (2025 will be a key season for the toledano as he attempts to establish himself among the acknowledged figuras). Borja Jiménez’s three afternoons are clearly merited given his 2024 season, although it’s to be regretted that his appearances are so close together, all three occurring within the programme’s final five corridas. The remaining two favoured espadas, however, come as some (albeit welcome) surprise given their recent treatment at the hands of the Madrid empresa. Fernando Adrián has had to struggle for contracts ever since his initial triumph at Las Ventas, while it wasn’t so long ago that Paco Ureña could only scrape onto the San Isidro carteles by offering to torear six bulls en solitario.

The feria once again offers toreo in depth - in addition to these six matadors, 13 others appear twice (the only surprise here being Fernando Robleño, given two chances to shine - albeit with aguirres and adolfos - in his despedida year: two more than the similarly-positioned Javier Castaño), while 24 toreros have one corrida apiece. Six of the latter will be confirming their alternativa - Clemente, from France, on the feria’s opening afternoon, followed by Alejandro Chicharro (keen to make an early impression following his alternativa at Valencia’s Las Fallas), Rafael Serna, the Mexican Diego San Román, Alejandro Peñaranda and Ismael Martín. The only disappointment on this front is the absence of Jarocho, who apparently felt that his 2024 Madrid puerta grande as a novillero was worthy of two afternoons in this year’s San Isidro.

Depth is offered in terms of the ganaderías, too. Yes, Victoriano del Río and Juan Pedro Domecq are given two afternoons apiece to satisfy the figuras, while Alcurrucén, Fuente Ymbro and Conde de Mayalde are also on twice (in each of their cases, a novillada and a corrida), and the majority of bulls will be from the Domecq encaste. However, the toristas can also look forward to seeing animals from Araúz de Robles, Pedraza de Yeltes (domecqs with a difference), Dolores Aguirre, José Escolar, Adolfo and Victorino Martín and La Quinta. The latter ganadería’s May 18 corrida will be in homage to la Real Unión de Criadores de Toros de Lidia in the 120th year of the organisation’s existence. The demanding feria’s variety of bulls, lest we forget, comes at a time when Spain’s stock of ganado bravo remains in its post-Covid depleted state.

The novilladas, too, are full of interest, particularly the first on May 18, with Javier Zulueta, Aarón Palacio and Sergio Sánchez, and the third, on May 30, in which young Marco Pérez will take on bulls of Fuente Ymbro and El Freixo en solitario. In between these two festejos, the much-fancied El Mene will make his Madrid debut, facing Conde de Mayalde novillos alongside Fabio Jiménez and the Portuguese Tomás Bastos.

Despite the depth of the field, it could be argued that the corridas lack much true competition between the toreros. There is one mano a mano, on May 24, albeit with bulls of Juan Pedro Domecq and featuring fragile matadors in the form of the sevillanos Juan Ortega and Pablo Aguado. Roca Rey continues to avoid Daniel Luque and only faces real competition on his first afternoon alongside Emilio de Justo and Tomás Rufo (the latter, in contrast, also appears with Morante, Talavante, Perera and Fernando Adrián over the course of the feria).

Fortes, Curro Díaz and Joselito Adame make welcome returns to the feria, although the absences of El Cid and Javier Cortés are disappointing. In terms of the modern generation of matadors, while Víctor Hernández and Samuel Navalón have been given single opportunities to impress, Ginés Marín’s chances have been reduced to one afternoon, and the likes of Álvaro Lorenzo, Manuel Diosleguarde, Francisco de Manuel, Jorge Martínez, Christian Parejo (so impressive in the capital last year) and Ángel Téllez have failed to make the cut at all.

With Guillermo Hermoso de Mendoza’s late withdrawal from the feria, rejoneo continues to be in the doldrums. Diego Ventura, the only true draw, is put on on both rejoneo afternoons, Rui Fernandes and Lea Vicens accompanying him on the first, and Duarte Fernandes and Sebastián Fernández (the latter confirming his alternativa) on the second.

The Beneficencia, once a charitable event featuring the feria triunfadores, no longer fulfils either tradition. This year, Morante de la Puebla, Fernando Adrián and Borja Jiménez have already been announced as the corrida’s participants, along with bulls from Juan Pedro Domecq. The Corrida en Memoriam will remember Victorino Martín Andrés, with Paco Ureña, Emilio de Justo and Borja Jiménez taking on bulls from his ganadería.

With the demise of Onetoro, for the first time the whole feria (plus the traditional corrida goyesca on May 2) is set to be televised live by Telemadrid, and the good news for foreign aficionados is that this will include transmissions on the company’s streaming website, www.telemadrid.es, from 7pm local time each day. The not-so-good news for those attending in person is that prices for entradas sueltas, steeply increased last year, have still been increased significantly for 2025.