A BATTLE ROYALE AS KENT FARRINGTON AND GREYA ARE BEST IN THE $1,000,000 CSI5* 1.60M ROLEX US EQUESTRIAN OPEN GRAND PRIX
USA’s Kent Farrington and his 12-year-old mare Greya took the 2026-title in Saturday night’s $1,000,000 CSI5* 1.60m Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival – Rolex Finale Week held at Wellington International in Wellington, Florida, USA.
The Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix was the first of seven events in the Rolex Series 2026 and the huge crowd of enthusiastic spectators that created an incredible atmosphere as the floodlights came on in the main ring at Wellington International proved the significance of this competition, the highlight of the Rolex Finale Week.
Farrington’s win in the Rolex Grand Prix was the first in seven years for a home rider, which made the victory even sweeter for the 45-year-old who is currently ranked 2nd in the world. “It’s always great to win at home,” Farrington said. “Wellington has really become an equestrian community. They get a great local crowd that comes out here and cheers for all of us, but particularly the American riders so it’s really exciting to win here at home. I hadn’t won a Grand Prix yet this [WEF] season, so it’s a great way to finish my [WEF] season this year.”
Forty athletes had qualified for the Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix during the Rolex Finale Week. Title defender and reigning Olympic Champion Christian Kukuk (GER), who is currently ranked 6th in the world, was among the 40 athletes competing for the win, where he was up against not only Kent Farrington, but also the likes of world no. 3 Ben Maher (GBR), world no. 7 Nina Mallevaey (FRA), as well as world no. 11 Laura Kraut (USA).
The 14-fence track set by Guilherme Jorge (BRA) began bold with a triple bar followed by the Rolex Series-wall. The middle part of the course, which included a vertical-vertical-oxer Rolex triple combination followed by an open water, tested accuracy, before the horses and riders were faced with a very delicate finish to the track. It was a challenging course, where even title-defender Kukuk on his 2024 Olympic gold medallist Checker 47 (Comme Il Faut x Come On) opted to retire after running into trouble at the wall.
Under the Wellington flood lights, cheered on by the enthusiastic, sold-out crowd, the first clear round came from double Olympic gold medallist Ben Maher (GBR) and Enjeu de Grisien (Toulon x Andiamo), while Jordan Coyle (IRL) and Chaccolino (Chacco-Blue x Heartbreaker) followed suit to secure a jump-off. At the halfway stage, Maher and Coyle stood as the only two to have found all the answers to the questions asked by Jorge’s track – the Brazilian mastermind had set a challenge to match the world-class field.
Kent Farrington and his incredibly consistent Greya (Colestus x Contender) delivered clear number three as the first pair to return after the midway break, while Darragh Kenny (IRL) and Eddy Blue (Eldorado vd Zeshoek x Chacco-Blue) jumped one of the most accurate rounds of the night to clear their way into the jump-off. Making it a battle of five for the title in the Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix, 2025 European Champion Richard Vogel (GER) was the last to join the jump-off with Gangster Montdesir (Kannan x Cornet Obolensky).
Maher and Enjeu de Grisien were the pace-setters in the jump-off, and piled pressure on the remaining four duos as they raced through the finish line to stop the clock at 43.72 seconds. For Coyle and Chaccolino, the penultimate fence hit the floor, leaving them out of contention for the top of the podium. Third out, Farrington and Greya, who prior to the Rolex Finale Week had won an incredible nine of her 15 five-star 1.60m jump-offs, shaved off 0.73 seconds on Maher’s leading time to slot into the lead.
However, with Kenny and Vogel to come, the night was far from over, and the knowledgeable Wellington-crowd was treated with an electric battle of the best. While Kenny and Eddy Blue gave it their best shot, a rail on the last oxer fell, leaving Vogel and Gangster Montdesir to decide the end result.
With a daring gallop to the last, the current world number four finished 0.12 seconds faster than Farrington but the risk came on the expense of a pole down on the final fence. With four penalties added to his score, Vogel slotted into third place ahead of Kenny in fourth and Coyle in fifth, while Farrington could celebrate the Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix-title on home soil ahead of Maher in second.
“You never know if it’s perfect until the class is over, but I thought I put in a very competitive round,” Farrington commented on his jump-off. “I took enough risk to put real pressure on these guys, but I didn’t take all the risk. I knew that if somebody put down a crazy round it was possible to be beat, but it was going to take a lot of doing.”
“I think she’s really an exceptional horse,” Farrington said of Greya. “You do this a long time, and you have some good horses, maybe even some great horses, and then you have horses that are an outlier athlete, like I believe she is. She can do everything. She’s fast, she’s careful, she’s scopey, she’s rideable. It’s just an incredible horse, and that’s what you’re seeing.” Farrington praised the Rolex Series events, pointing out how a combination of several different factors make them so popular among riders and spectators alike.
“First of all, the best riders come so we always have the highest level of sport,” he pointed out. “Then great prize money. The prestige of a Rolex event really puts us on the map with other sports, and then there is a great audience like we have tonight. I think combining those things, you have the best in sport and a great event that we’re all proud to be in. And I’m very happy to win!”
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