Text © World of Showjumping

Scott Brash (GBR) and his 16-year-old 2024 Olympic team gold medallist Hello Jefferson (Cooper vd Heffinck x Irco Mena) bested a field of 50 horse-and-rider combinations in Sunday’s CSIO5* 1.60m Longines Grand Prix of Switzerland in St. Gallen.

No less than 16 of the pairs at start cleared the first-round track set by Gérard Lachat (SUI), moving on to the second round against the clock – where they were competing for a total prize purse of 500,000 Euro. 

Nicolas Sers (FRA) and Eleven de Riverland (Kannan x Diamant de Semilly) posted the first clear in round two, powering on to cross the finish line in 46.22 seconds with the French rider using the stallion’s huge stride to his advantage. Katharina Rhomberg (AUT) was quick to challenge Sers, but the time of 46.95 seconds slotted her and Cuma 5 (Comme Il Faut x Ars Vivendi) into second place on the scoreboard.

With several long and open distances across the big grass ring at Gründenmoos, the riders were left with no other option than to let their horses gallop which tricked more than half the starters in round two into making mistakes – including home heroes Steve Guerdat (SUI) and Nadja Peter-Steiner (SUI) who posted faster times than Sers, but each clipped a rail. 

Sers held the lead all the way until Brash entered the ring as second last to go. Brash meant business and after a brilliant rollback to the Land Rover oxer he managed to keep it together over the delicate penultimate double of verticals and the final Longines oxer, to shave off 0.10 seconds on the time to beat. 

Left to challenge Brash was Janika Sprunger (SUI), but Orelie (Emerald x Nabab de Reve) clipped a rail on the last Longines oxer – dropping them down on the result list and leaving Brash with the win ahead of Sers in second and Rhomberg in third. Thibeau Spits (BEL) and Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z finished fourth, followed by Alessandra Reich (AUT) and Oeli R (Denzel VT Meulenhof x Andiamo) in fifth – both double clear.