Lorenzo Fraile had sent a poor string of atanasios to Madrid for Thursday’s corrida. Today, he presented five bulls of his Domecq La Ventana del Puerto brand and a single atanasio, run in fourth place. While meeting the requirements for Madrid bulls in the looks department, they were all, apart from the first, equally as bad as the string of two days ago.

Christian Parejo, today’s confirmator, was fortunate to draw the afternoon’s best bull, but unfortunate that it was the first of the corrida. Had his faena occurred as the third one of the day, possibly there would have been a bigger petition for an ear than the one I joined in on and which the president easily dismissed. The youngster, whom some commentators consider to be French although he is a gaditano who happens to have been schooled at Bézier’s escuela taurina, showed a will to succeed and a confidence that he could achieve it that neither Sebastián Castella nor Daniel Luque demonstrated today.

He began with some well-judged verónicas con pies juntos, chicuelinas and a media verónica. With the bull’s qualities already clear, Castella joined in with a quite of gaoneras, Parejo following through with a quite of tafalleras. After the ceremony, Christian began the faena with pases cambiados por la espalda before citing the bull from a distance and going on to secure good linked muletazos con temple on either hand. A respectable estocada was soon followed by a descabello, both the bull and the matador receiving ovations.

Parejo dedicated his second massively-horned domecq to Ortega Cano and tried hard with it. But this animal was very tricky on its left horn, and, after the bull had given its matador a couple of warnings, the crowd voiced its wish for the faena to end. Parejo killed with an estocada caída, hearing an aviso; the bull was whistled en arrastre while Parejo received silence. Nevertheless, he was warmly applauded as he left the ring, in contrast to the cushions that rained down as Castella led out Daniel Luque, and hopefully today’s showing will stand him in good stead for the future.

The cushions were actually a bit harsh. Castella had performed a decent enough faena to the second bull, which lacked transmission, the Frenchman having to resort to ojedismo and desplantes to maintain interest. He took saludos from the callejón after the kill. His second bull (the atanasio) came in bucking, was heavily picced and, surprisingly, was dedicated to the public. There were some linked derechazos and a couple of near cogidas, the bull allowing very little in the faena. Sebastián ended with a pinchazo, media estocada and three descabellos, receiving an aviso and palmas, while the bull was dragged out to pitos.

Daniel Luque’s opening San Isidro appearance was practically a non-event. He soon cut short his faena to his wide-horned opener, killing with an estocada at full stretch and three descabellos. His second faena was begun nicely following a quite of close chicuelinas and a media verónica from Parejo, but this was an animal that was not strong on its legs and increasingly declined to come forward to the lure, so it all ended with a pinchazo, estocada and aviso, pitos for the bull and palmas for Luque.

Whilst most of today’s faenas were disappointing, there were plenty of fine pairs of banderillas placed, Antonio Chacón, Vicente Herrera, José Chacón, Iván García and Jesús Arruga all receiving applause for their artistry in the second tercio.