Brash in the Netherlands with hopes of back-to-back victory

Indeed, Valkenswaard, located in the south of Holland, is the birthplace of LGCT founder and president Jan Tops, himself an Olympic equestrian champion who created the state-of-the-art Tops International Arena in his hometown. And from August 11-13, many of the top-ranked riders in the world will be at the site as this year’s series enters the home stretch, with two subsequent stops set for Rome and Doha, Qatar.

Not surprisingly, a large Dutch contingent will be taking to the recently resurfaced course in Valkenswaard, which derives its name from local falconers and the birds who migrate through the region — in fact, valk is Dutch for ‘falcon’. Among the 10 riders signed up from the home nation for this weekend’s show are Harrie Smolders and Maikel van der Vleuten, ranked 1st and 4th respectively in the current Tour rankings.

With rivals like Italy’s Alberto Zorzi (2nd) and Germany’s Christian Ahlmann (3rd) also in the title hunt, the race to become overall champion in November in the Middle East is tight. And after a turbo-charged Grand Prix victory on home soil last weekend in London with Hello Forever, two-time LGCT champ Scott Brash MBE of Great Britain is also within striking distance, in 5th place. Brash, like Tops an Olympic champion, will be in the Netherlands this weekend with a repeat victory on his mind, alongside compatriot Alexandra Thornton. For its part, Ireland is not represented in this year’s competition, as the historic Dublin Horse Show is happening at the same time in the Irish capital.

As described by the event’s organizers, the Tops International Arena was designed “with the horse as the top priority, the show ground featur[ing] an exceptional 125m by 85m sweeping main arena, four further sand arenas featuring top class footing, canter tracks and lunging arenas, expansive warm up arenas, exceptional wash areas and facilities for grooms to provide top standard care and over 500 world class and beautifully designed stables available for visiting competitors.”

Among those visiting competitors this weekend are many of the big names in the sport: World No.1 Kent Farrington of the U.S.; Italy’s Lorenzo de Luca; German Olympic legend Ludger Beerbaum and his veteran teammates Marcus Ehning and Daniel Deusser; top French riders Simon Delestre and Penelope Leprevost; Nicola Philippaerts, Olivier Philippaerts and Gregory Wathelet of Belgium, Henrik von Eckermann of Sweden and Sergio Alvarez Moya of Spain.

For Brash, the route to a repeat victory is thus anything but clear, but the Scotland native and the other world-class riders know that any of the horse-and-rider pairs taking part can win on any given day.