After Saint-Tropez, race shapes up in Longines Global Champions Tour

The 35-year-old Maher and his nine-year-old stallion Winning Good claimed victory in Saturday’s Grand Prix of Saint-Tropez, stopping the clock faster than podium-mates Carlos Enrique Lopez Lizarazo of Colombia and Admara 2 and Tops-Alexander and California after a seven-pair jump-off at the Longines Athina Onassis Horse Show. All three rode clear in the tie-breaking round with respective times of 37.44 s, 38.41 s and 38.78 s.

The 5th edition of the show, sponsored by the Swiss watchmaker and organised by 5*-level rider Athina Onassis, took place at the white sand Pampelonne Beach close to the village of Ramatuelle, known for its jet-setting ambience. The competition became part of the 16-stop worldwide Show Jumping series this year, with preceding legs of the Tour held in Mexico City, Miami Beach, Shanghai, Madrid and Hamburg.

In fact, there will be a 17th destination for the LGCT for the first time in 2018, with Prague in the Czech Republic hosting the Longines Global Champions Super Grand Prix in December, open to winners of individual Grand Prix throughout the year. Brash (in Mexico City), Maher (in Madrid and Saint-Tropez) and Tops-Alexander (in Miami Beach) have all secured a spot in that inaugural competition.

“I just kept telling myself he is better the more he jumps,” Maher said about Winning Good and his stablemate Explosion W after the rider’s triumph on the French Riviera. “I am very proud to be able to ride these horses…. It has been incredible, they are only nine-year-old horses. In Madrid, everything went to plan. Today nothing went to plan at all but I had a bit of luck. I knew I had to be quick. I saw my stride a very long way back. I don’t know how he jumped it but my luck was in today.”

For their part, Brash and Tops-Alexander, who started riding as an eight-year-old in lemon shirts and riding breeches at the the Avondale Pony Club in North Turramurra, New South Wales in the suburbs of Sydney, are also both aiming for a third series title after Tops-Alexander won in 2011 and 2012 and Brash in 2013 and 2014. Currently, the Australian is first in the standings with Maher second and the Peebles, Scotland native third. The next leg of the series is scheduled for just up the coast in Cannes, France from June 7–9.