THRILLING COMPETITION FOR THE ROLEX IJRC TOP 10 FINAL. 2025 TROPHY IS BACK IN SCOTT BRASH HANDS

What a competition tonight at the Palexpo in Geneva. The Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final proved once again to be a fantastic challenge among the best riders in the world. Top ten riders in the FEI Ranking entered the arena that has been the stage for this duel for many years and the magic of show jumping became real.

The Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final in its traditional format, with two rounds on different courses and the addition of faults from both of them, was decided on the time scored in the second round by the only two double clears: Kent Farrington on Toulayna – faster in the first round – and Scott Brash on Hello Chadora Lady who had the best time in the second one. Luckily for the rider, that was the one that counted and after his win in 2014, he gained tonight the Rolex Trophy in Geneve for the second time in six participations in this class.

Scott Brash’s companion in this great achievement has been Hello Chadora Lady. “She is a really energetic horse” Scott said, and she expressed her nature on every single jump from the very beginning.

Rolex Testimonee and Live Contender of the Rolex Grand Slam, the rider from Peebles is going through a very special period in his bright career.

“I have amazing horses here. They're my three best horses and they've all won 2 to 5 stars classes each this year”.

Talking about his second round in the Rolex IJRC Top 10 Final, Scott paid tribute to Chadora: “She's such a quick mare, she was so eager to get to the jumps and when I came around to fence 4, she walked onto the double, which was my fault because I should have anticipated that. So, for a minute she thought she was going to the double and then that just got a little bit untidy on that turn really. She was amazing to jump the vertical and then the next line was a bit tricky because that was a bit messy. But she's so naturally fast and she jumped it all very well”.

Second placed Kent Farrington, in bitter and sour mood, was pleased to be on the podium but not so proud of his second place on it. «My strategy was not so good tonight, as you can see from the result. I watched Scott's round and my strategy was to try to go very smooth and I thought I would catch him thanks to my horse’s natural speed. But Scott’s horse is also naturally very fast. I saw that many riders had the second to last fence down. I took my time to make sure I cleared it, it swung me a little bit to the outside and I ended up on 10 strides to the last fence. I think the others went in 9, so I lost by a fraction. Not a good strategy...».

Richard Vogel, third placed on Cloudio, was also very proud of his 10-year-old horse

“I’m very happy with Cloudio’s performance tonight. It’s its first time in Geneve. He had already jumped beautifully well at Aix-la-Chapelle and Calgary. The way he felt home in the arena tonight was absolutely amazing. I was very disappointed after the result in the first round where I had a clear misunderstanding while approaching fence n. 10 ending up with a pole down”.

Francois Mathy, president of the IJRC, the International Jumping Riders Club that is behind this fantastic challenge wanted to express his appreciation to the riders: “I’d like to congratulate the three riders. Every year we wait for this moment of fantastic sport. Last year we thought we had a super show but this year it was even more impressive”.

Eleonora Ottaviani, Director of the IJRC also had many good vibes to share during the press conference with the winning riders and with the Chi of Geneva: “We are really grateful to have Rolex with us. The podium in this competition has been topped this year by three Rolex Testimonees. Among them, Richard Vogel is from Rolex Young Riders Academy, which is also supported by Rolex. I think we are dealing with a very special sport event. I’d like to say thank-you to the Geneva Organizing Committee that 25 years ago, gave confidence to IJRC’s project”.

While admiring the Trophy that was awarded by Joël Aeschlimann – Rolex International Sponsorship Manager- together with Camille Rast, ski Rolex Testimonee - Brash said: “I think the Rolex IJRC Top 10 class is one of the most unique classes in the year. I think it's probably one of the most watched classes of the whole year. So it's on all our radars. We all want to, first of all, be in the Top 10. And then when you're in it, you want to win it. And every rider is the same. I think I speak on behalf of all 10 riders. I think it's just great to be here and to be part of the Top 10 class. And I think if you run this class 10 times, you'll probably get 10 different results. It's just amazing. Thanks to Rolex, to IJRC and Geneva for putting it on, because it really is one of the pinnacle classes of the year”.