Next Stop, Monaco — Longines Global Champions Tour in Principality this Weekend

The Tour features the top show jumpers in the world — Olympic, World and Continental Champions — competing at 15 stops across the planet for unprecedented prize money and points toward the Champion of Champions title. It runs in parallel with the mixed team Global Champions League, which also serves as a qualifier for this Saturday’s €300,000 Grand Prix du Prince de Monaco — a highlight of the weekend only open to a limited number of horse-and-rider pairs.

This weekend’s competition in Monaco, which has been ruled for hundreds of years by the House of Grimaldi, is also a logical next step from the last leg of the Tour, in Cannes, France (June 8-10), where Spain’s Sergio Alvarez Moya and his 12-year-old bay Arrayan captured the Grand Prix.

And while certain elite riders and their mounts are further north in Europe this weekend, at the CHIO in Rotterdam, Holland, which takes place concurrently with the LGCT, Monaco’s line-up is as glittering as its host city. The top-ranked rider in the world, for example, Kent Farrington of the United States, is set to compete there after recent tournaments at Spruce Meadows in Canada. Christian Ahlmann and Daniel Deusser will be there from Germany, and Belgians including Jérôme Guery, Gregory Wathelet and Niels Bruynseels will be leading that country’s strong contingent.

Monaco is the midway point of the 2017 LGCT and GCL, after stopping in Mexico City, Miami Beach, Shanghai, Madrid, Hamburg, and Cannes. Following stops will be Paris, Cascais, Portugal, Chantilly, Berlin, London, Valkenswaard, the Netherlands, Rome, and Doha, Qatar.

Current standings: LGCT and GCL