Press release from Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping, edited by World of Showjumping

This week, the CSIO5* Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ continues the 50th anniversary season at the iconic Spruce Meadows-venue in Calgary, Canada, with the 3,676,500.00 USD 'CPKC International' Grand Prix, presented by Rolex, as one of the highlights.

This year also marks a decade since Great Britain’s Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos won the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping – and to date, Brash is the only rider to have achieved the Grand Slam by winning the Rolex Grand Prix at CHI Geneva in 2014, at CHIO Aachen in 2015 as well as the CPKC ‘International’ Grand Prix, presented by Rolex, at Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ in 2015.

“Words cannot really describe what it felt like to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping - it all still feels quite surreal,” Brash reflects on his achievement, a decade later. “I remember experiencing such a mixture of emotions; delight, relief, happiness, even sadness in a strange way as it was a goal our whole team had been utterly focused on, and we had finally achieved our target, suddenly that chapter was done! It was absolutely incredible, and a single moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

“At the beginning of my Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping journey, I do not think I ever really thought it was possible for us to win it,” he continues. “Each Rolex Major hosts the world’s best horse and rider combinations, and any combination could win – so I have always understood how hard it is to win a Rolex Major, let alone the whole Rolex Grand Slam. If you told me that we would win at the CHI Geneva, and then go on and win two more Rolex Majors, and on the same horse, Hello Sanctos, I would not have believed it was possible.”

“Hello Sanctos is an incredible horse – one of a lifetime,” Brash says about the legendary Sanctos, who was retired from the sport in 2019. “What makes him so special is how clever he is. I think we understood one another inside out. I could jump a course and visualize before we even went into the ring how he would interpret things, and how I needed to ride him to give him the best chance to jump the fences clear. We totally trusted one another, and this was one of the keys to our success.”

In 2016, Brash continued to achieve great results with Ursula XII, placing second in the Rolex Grand Prix at Aachen, winning at Calgary, and finishing third in Geneva. “As time has passed, I have come to appreciate the sheer magnitude of Sanctos’ achievement,” Brash says. “Each year, I return to these venues on different horses with the hope of winning just one more Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping Major, which is an immense challenge in itself! I am still as hungry as ever to go and try to win it again.”