Garcigrande closed Sevilla's Feria de San Miguel without strength or fight. Morante de la Puebla and his fellow matadors were left above their bulls, while Luis Blázquez provided the afternoon's emotional moment.
At 18:00 on 27 September 2026, six Garcigrande bulls entered the programme for Sevilla's final Feria de San Miguel fixture. Canal Sur carried the event live. The afternoon ended without a triumph.
Morante de la Puebla, Daniel Luque and Borja Jiménez faced bulls short of strength, stamina and bravery when it mattered. The clearest moment came away from the muleta. Luis Blázquez ended more than three decades as a bullfighter.
The 25th fixture of the abono at the Real Maestranza de Caballería gave the matadors little room. The fourth bull was returned because of a vision defect. The first substitute, the cuarto bis, also failed to move forward. Advance coverage had already reported that the first number of the lot was replaced for the same reason. Morante dispatched it quickly because he found no real opening for artistic work.
Advance coverage reported that tickets for Sevilla’s closing San Miguel bullfight had sold out, underlining the importance attached to the final fixture of the season at the Real Maestranza.
The contrast was stark.
Saturday had brought Pablo Aguado the Puerta del Príncipe. The closing afternoon offered nothing close to that result.
Morante returned to his preferred arena for his fifth and final appearance of the season. He opened the campaign at the Maestranza on Domingo de Resurrección. Two more appearances followed during the pre-Feria and Feria de Abril period. He suffered a goring on 20 April, then returned for Corpus and opened the Puerta del Príncipe on 4 June. A summer of intense activity across Spain came next. A bout of lumbalgia kept him out of Logroño during the week, but he remained scheduled to appear in Sevilla.
Morante's view was blunt. The bulls were not fit for proper display, and the corrida became an exercise in endurance. Daniel Luque and Borja Jiménez also failed to turn their work into results. The scorecard showed the gap between the three men and the livestock: Morante received an ovation and silence, Luque silence and an ovation, while Jiménez received silence after a warning and then silence again.
El País’s post-fight analysis placed the main responsibility for the disappointment on the modern bull’s lack of forward momentum rather than on a failure of artistry by the matadors. In that reading, the weak lot extinguished the morantismo that the sold-out Sevilla audience had expected to see.
Luis Blázquez owned the day's emotional centre. The Valencian banderillero served in Borja Jiménez's cuadrilla and ended his career after more than thirty years. At the end of the bullfight, Jiménez removed his coleta in front of the afternoon's matadors and Blázquez's son.
It was a farewell ceremony, not a consolation for the failed corrida. Its human weight outlasted the six performances in the ring.
The result also separated itself from the force of Morante's wider season. The maestro from La Puebla has filled arenas and drawn attention across Spain. In Sevilla, his presence could not make up for bulls that faded quickly in the muleta. A separate festival report recently captured a very different kind of Spanish cultural finale. Here, the ending turned on what the animals could not provide.
D. José Luque Teruel presided over the corrida. D. Santiago Sánchez Apellániz served as veterinary adviser. D. Luis Arenas was artistic adviser, and D. Luis Ramírez was government delegate. The Garcigrande livestock and the all-Sevillian line-up had promised a major closing act for San Miguel. The decisive problem was the lack of fondo de casta.
Sevilla closes its Feria with a plain sporting verdict. The matadors were above their opponents, but the bulls did not make a reward possible. Morante's return, Luque's effort and Jiménez's commitment were visible throughout the afternoon.
The farewell mattered more.
Luis Blázquez left the profession with his coleta removed. For this closing fixture, that image carried more weight than the corrida itself.
