Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final: History is written by the best

Text © IJRC/CHI Geneva

Ten riders, ten different styles and ten different personalities, challenge one another over one of the most difficult and technical courses in the world, that of the Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final, one of the most coveted by riders and most loved by spectators.

The Club is a context in which one can aim for the sky, for example the Top 10; there are riders here who have written and are writing the history of our sport. Great occasions are like that, they leave a mark in our lives.

- Eleonora Ottaviani -

The Geneva CHI5* is awaited with great excitement - from December 9th to December 12th - celebrating its 60th anniversary and the 20th Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final.

The Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final will be held on the Friday evening (riders will walk the course at 8.40 pm and the first round will start at 9.30 pm), with the ten leading riders on the world ranking going on a quest to be the best!

The Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final is one of the most eagerly awaited and prestigious events on the international show jumping scene. A class in which only the world’s top 10 ranked riders are invited to compete for the title of the best among them.

The Top Ten is an event followed with great interest not only by spectators filling the stands of Geneva’s Palexpo, but also watched from all over the world on TV and online. Watching a competition between the ten best riders in the world ranking has contributed to making Top Ten one of the most exciting events on the entire international indoor show jumping circuit.

Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final 20th edition: The Riders

Peder Fredricson (SWE)

Daniel Deusser (GER)

Henrik von Eckermann (SWE)

Martin Fuchs (SUI)

Scott Brash (GBR)

Kent Farrington (USA)

Steve Guerdat (SUI)

Ben Maher (GBR)

Jerome Guery (BEL)

Kevin Staut (FRA)

The first and the last riders to win the Final:

Winner of the most recent edition of the Top Ten held in 2019, Kent Farrington is the current title holder:

“The Final of the Rolex IJRC Top Ten has become a special event for our sport. It is a separate moment rather like the tennis finals that inspired it. It is very important for our discipline’s visibility to know that at the end of every year there is the promise of a class like that. The format is short, fast-moving and exciting to watch. As far as the riders are concerned, we all love this class and it is always a very special evening. For us, the simple fact of having it made it that far, being listed among the ten best riders in the world at the end of the year is already a challenge and an accomplishment. The fact that the final is always held in Geneva, obviously one of the best shows in the world, adds to the magic of this event. Everything comes together to ensure it is a moment of great sport: first of there is a very warm public, then the size of the jumps is serious and one is well aware that it will not be an easy class to win. Show jumping supporters look forward impatiently to this event every year and so do the riders.”

(Reproduced with the kind permission of the CHI of Geneva)

The very first edition of the final held in 2001, was marked by Ludger Beerbaum’s victory:

“Winning the Rolex IJRC Top Ten Final is something unique. And in my case, it was an even more powerful feeling as it was the first in its history. Twenty years ago... It seems such a long time ago! And yet I can remember it perfectly clearly. I was riding my wonderful horse Goldfever I, who had always loved the arena at the Palexpo. When he felt the public’s excitement, when he heard the noise in the stands and felt the adrenalin rising, he surpassed himself," Ludger says. "It has to be said that the Rolex IJRC Top Ten is not only a sporting event that all riders dream of competing in, but also a fantastic calling card for our discipline. Everything possible is done to provide a wonderful spectacle: the parade, the format with its two short rounds between which there is time to interview the riders and then the jump off… It is a really cool class. Twenty years ago, this kind of organisation, designed to provide the event with a sensational element, was still completely unheard of. The fact that there is only one of these finals every year also contributes to its unusual dimension: if we had a Top Ten every week, its importance would soon vanish.”

Since it was first organised, the Rolex IJRC Top 10 has been a success with riders and spectators alike. “It usually takes a few years for a new competition format to gain a place for itself in the yearly calendar, but with the Top Ten this happened very quickly and the level of sport was instantly extremely high. Since the 2nd edition (also won by Ludger Beerbaum, this time riding Gladdys S, Editor’s Note), it has had a worldwide impact.”

“Sport evolves, but the Top Ten’s fame remains unchanged," Beerbaum underlines. "Starting in January, any rider ranked between the top 10 or 15 in the global ranking underlines in red the date for the Top Ten in his diary! We all want to be there.”

(Reproduced with the kind permission of the Geneva CHI)

See you in Geneva!!!