It’s Game, Set, Match for Scott Brash as he secures his second Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix win of 2025
Monday 16 June 2025
Ice-cool as ever, Scott Brash landed his second Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix victory of the season in the beautiful French Riviera setting of St Tropez, Ramatuelle, with Lady Harris and Lady Kirkham’s Hello Chadora Lady. It was a fantastic feat to pull off, fending off the fierce challenges of two of the fastest men in the world of showjumping – World Number 1 Kent Farrington and French speedster Julien Epaillard.
The crowd is very enthusiastic, it’s always great to compete here,” said Scott.
French course-designer Gregory Bodo built a challenging 13-fence 1.60m track which tested the some of the world’s best in the 40-strong field, with the final line and the PremuiMares plank catching a few of the sport’s biggest names. Nonetheless, eight elite provided initial clears to battle it out in the jump-off – and a battle it was, with seven jumping double clears for the clock to play a major role.
Drawn second and already qualified for the LGCT Super Grand Prix after winning in Shanghai with Hello Chadora Lady, Scott was a man on a mission, determined to make it a double and positively rocketed out of the gate. Despite the breath-taking turns and a spectators’ dare-I-look risky gallop, effortlessly taking out strides, Scott wiped almost four seconds off Jerome Guery’s (BEL) opening round on Killer Queen.
Julien set off at full tilt on Donatello D’Auge, bidding for a win in front of his home crowd but could only come within 1.32 seconds of Scott’s blistering time. And Kent Farrington gave it his all on Toulayna but a quick check before the final fence made the American maestro fall short, slipping into second 1.19 seconds off the winning time.
“She gives you so much confidence because she’s always seeing you, always wanting to jump for you, so it’s just about containing that energy she has, and yeah, it paid off today,” said Scott, on the 12-year-old Chacco-Blue x Nintender mare who showed scope and bravery in spades.
Second-placed Kent, who picked up the Golden ticket to the LGCT Super Grand Prix at the GC Prague Playoffs, analysed: “We certainly had to take some risks today, it was a very fast class, Scott went really fast, I thought I could catch him - that first line I probably needed to do one less stride because he had such a great round today.”
The win in the sixth leg of the season’s LGCT Grand Prix shook up the Championship leaderboard, with Scott racing up the board to stand in third on 101 points – 19 behind the leader, Belgium’s Gilles Thomas. Twice winner of the LGCT Championship, Scott looks firmly on track for his third title.
Scott guided Hello Valentino into second in the 38-strong 5* 1.45m speed, the Diamantino 11-year-old finishing 1.20 seconds behind the winner, France’s Lara Tryba on Flash De Talma.
James Whitaker picked up two second places in the two-star classes with Just Call Me Henry, claiming the runner-up spot in the initial 40-entry Prix Lion of Porches 1.40m speed 2.29 seconds off the pace and again finishing second 24 hours later. Thirty-four contended the Champagne Barons de Rothschild 1.45m speed with James slotting the Argento 10-year-old 1.76 seconds behind the winner.
Sameh El Dahan claims a Rolex Grand Prix podium place in the Spruce Meadows ‘National’
Sameh El Dahan jumped Oscar-A into third in the top-billed 5* Rolex Grand Prix at the Spruce Meadows ‘National’ in Calgary, Canada.
Thirty-one riders negotiated course-designer Olaf Petersen Jr’s 14-fence, 17-effort 1.60m track with nine finding all the answers to qualify for the jump-off. The Irish contingent had dominated the major classes all week at the ‘National’, but although three representatives made an appearance in this jump-off and produced fast times, a rail down cost then dear and pushed them down the order on this occasion.
Sameh opted for accuracy over time in the jump-off, guiding the Harley x Cardento 933 11-year-old into another faultless round to slot into third, 4.38 seconds behind the winner, Czech’s Vaclav Stanek on Quintin.
Matt Sampson claimed two of the top four places in the AltoGas 1.45m, winning with One Whisper. Fifty-seven competitors initially contended this class with 15 returning for the jump-off, Matt galloping to victory on the Daniel x Kannan 12-year-old by 0.35 seconds. Matt also jumped double clear on Un Secreto Z for fourth.
The Belgian-bred 10-year-old Un Secreto Z moved up to second in the final day’s Atco Cup 2* 1.45m Grand Prix for Matt. Eleven of the 30 riders returned for the jump-off with Matt having to settle for second place by 0.46 seconds to the winner, his fiancée Kara Chad (CAN) on Corinna Z.
Matt again finished second in the Apex Cup 1.50m Table C speed (time added for a knockdown) with the 16-year-old mare Ebolensky. The top four all had a rail down each as they vied each other against the clock and, as one of the last to go, Jordan Coyle took major risks on For Gold to beat Matt by almost three seconds.
Charlie Jones scored an early win on the Care For 10-year-old Montserrat OS with a 2.33 second advantage in the nine-horse decider of the Mercer Cup 1.40m.
Image: Longines Global Champions Tour
.jpg "Great Britain's Youth Riders Continue To Shine at the Future Champions Nations Cup at Hagen TW in Germany.")
 C Mandy Frost.jpg "Great Britain’s Team Audevard secure the Bronze medal in the FEI Jumping Veteran European Championships in Italy")
.jpg "British Equestrian announces nominated entries for FEI Jumping European Championship 2025")