Everyone still remembers the remarkable jump-off that America’s Jessica Springsteen won ahead of the men riders, in the Longines Athina Onassis Horse Show’s LGCT Grand Prix in 2019. The circuit’s most glamorous show is getting ready to play host to the world’s best show jumpers and members of the public for its seventh edition, from Thursday to Saturday, a stone’s throw from the mythical Pampelonne Beach, after a year of absence!
The public will be able to attend 5-star equestrian events in France once again, with some great sport guaranteed from 27 to 29 May! For its seventh edition, the Longines Athina Onassis Horse Show, the third leg of the prestigious Longines Global Champions Tour and the Global Champions League, will return to Pampelonne Beach and with the champions who have been coming there, once a year, since 2014. And what champions they are! The winners of the 2021 LGCT’s previous legs, Austria’s Max Kühner, victorious in the Grand Prix of Doha, and France’s Olivier Robert who won the 5* Grand Prix last weekend, will obviously be competing! But they will face other big names who would love to add the circuit’s Saint-Tropez leg to their list of wins, such as Sweden’s Peder Fredricson, Great Britain’s Ben Maher, the winner here in 2018, and Belgium’s Pieter Devos, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in the Longines FEI World Rankings. The Kaiser, Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum, the equestrian sport legend will also be a force to be reckoned with, just like his fellow countryman Christian Ahlmann, and the current French Olympic team gold medallist, Roger-Yves Bost. As for the ladies, Australia’s Edwina Tops-Alexander and France’s young Jeanne Sadran who was very impressive in Doha, will also be competing.
This year’s schedule boasts six CSI 5* classes on tracks imagined by Grégory Bodo, the French course designer, including the famous LGCT Grand Prix of Ramatuelle/Saint-Tropez and both rounds of the Global Champions League, the team competition. In total, the Longines Athina Onassis Horse Show will offer prize money totalling more than 550,000 euros. The first round of the Global Champions League will take place on Thursday at 4.15 pm. The St Tropez Pirates, the ‘local team’ will do their utmost to shine before their fans. Will the team led by Olivier Robert manage to have a home win for the first time? All will be revealed on Saturday afternoon, after the second round of the Global Champions League, which is also a qualifier for the Longines Global Champions Tour Individual Grand Prix, which will get underway after this second round, at 5.25pm. All the classes will be broadcast live on GCTV.
