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Since 2010, a total of 38 horses aged either eight or nine recorded wins in their 160 debuts at four or five-star level with 20 of those going on to achieve an Elo rating of at least 680 in their further career. While the majority were nine years old when taking on the huge milestone of jumping and winning a 160 track, eight of those winning debuts were produced by eight-year-old horses.
An impressive list of horses that features four of the current top ten highest-rated horses. Explosion W made his 160 debut back in April 2018 under the saddle of Ben Maher at the age of nine with a win at the LGCT of Shanghai. A win that has had a domino effect on this horse&rsquo;s career. The next day, this combination took the win in the LGCT Grand Prix of Shanghai, followed by a win in the LGCT Grand Prix in Madrid two weeks later. That same year, the chestnut gelding collected victories in the LGCT Grand Prix in Rome and Doha. A list of performances that were rewarded with an Elo of 772. To this day, no other horse has managed to score a higher Elo in their nine-year-old year. The following year, at the age of 10, Explosion W scored a new record. After yet another LGCT Grand Prix win, this time in New York, he achieved an Elo of 804, which to this day is the highest Elo-rating ever accomplished.
Daniel Deusser and Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z is a combination we know as one of the main pairs to beat in any top-level Grand Prix. A fact they have proven since their first attempt. The chestnut stallion made his 160 debut back in October 2017 at the age of nine, in the CSI5*-W Grand Prix of Oslo and immediately jumped into the spotlight by taking the win. Right now, Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z is the highest-rated horse on our Elo-rating as the only horse scoring over 800.
Way back in 2015, McLain Ward rode a little, bay, nine-year-old mare to victory in her first 160 five-star Grand Prix in Calgary. Eight years later and we still HH Azur winning Grand Prix at the highest level. At 17 years old, HH Azur is still the sixth highest-rated horse on our Elo-rating and is fresh off an outstanding win in the Rolex Major Grand Prix of &lsquo;s Hertogenbosch. As this is her second consecutive win in the Rolex Grand Slam series, McLain will receive a &euro;500,000 bonus with the chance of doubling that amount at a third win.
More recently, in 2021, Simon Delestre introduced nine-year-old Cayman Jolly Jumper to the 160 level of showjumping in the Grand Prix of La Coruna. At just their second show as a pair, this combination took the win by producing the only double clear in the field. Today, Cayman Jolly Jumper is the highest-rated 11-year-old in the sport with his eyes set on competing at his home Olympics in Paris next year.
Other names on the list include Solid Gold Z, Orient Express HDC, Mumbai, Kiana van het Herdershof among others that are or have been considered household names in the sport. One could therefore argue that an eight or a nine-year-old winning its 160 debut is a great predictor of future career success. An observation that bodes well for the future of Empoli de Champloue, newly named Tipperary, who made a winning 160 debut last year in the Grand Prix of Riyadh at the age of eight.

These horses won their 160 debut & now are rated among the best in the world

The High Performance Rating (HPR) is an objective measurement of a single performance. It introduces the valuable concept of a &lsquo;personal best&rsquo; (PB) that is so often the force that elevates performance in sport.
To test this metric, Sam and Nicole casually rattle through the top 40 performances of 2022! &lsquo;The list&rsquo; evokes plenty of memories from the jaw-dropping moments as the Geneva Grand Prix reached its climax to the slight surprise victors at some of the season highlights.
The dominance of Deusser features heavily, particularly as this &lsquo;top 40&rsquo; focuses solely on individual Grand Prixs and excludes the team competitions of Nations Cups and the World Championships.&nbsp;
So, without further delay and cutting straight to the top 10, here are the highlights:
Marlon Modolo Zanotelli (10) hits the top ten with a win in the Trophe de Geneve which was essentially the undercard. It shows the quality that turned up in Geneva this year and the venue features heavily in the top 40. VDL EDGAR M&rsquo;s Elo hit a 4-year low prior to Geneva (654) but he&rsquo;s back up to 695 after a very successful week in Geneva.
Nicola Philippaerts (9) just made the podium in the Aachen Grand Prix but that&rsquo;s enough to make our top 10. KATANGA VAN HET DINGESHOF is a regular on our &lsquo;top 10 rated horses&rsquo; (Elo) when he turns up at major shows. He may not feature in the headlines, but he features right at the business end of several performance metrics.
Shane Sweetnam (8) also claims a spot with a podium finish (3rd) in the Geneva Grand Prix. If you haven&rsquo;t heard of JAMES KANN CRUZ then you&rsquo;re living under a rock and you&rsquo;ve not been following EquiRatings. This is the best 9-year-old in the world in 2022 and one of the best youngsters we&rsquo;ve ever seen on ratings. This performance was a career PB and the icing on a very fruitful cake.
Steve Guerdat (7) takes us to another Rolex Grand Slam event, this time in Spruce Meadows and now for a runner-up position. VENARD DE CERISY claimed the title here in 2021 but the level of performance achieved on ratings are worlds apart. 2021 was significantly impacted in terms of field quality, but the rating for his 2022 performance shows that this horse is capable of holding his own amongst the world&rsquo;s best.&nbsp;
Michael Pender (6) might be the surprise for many on this list for his win in Riyadh with HHS CALAIS. This performance didn&rsquo;t just a PB performance but it also triggered a career peak Elo of 729 for this upwardly mobile combination.
Scott Brash (5) is the first of two runner-up finishers in Rolex Grand Slam events. His 2nd place at Aachen might have felt like an agonizing near miss at the time, but it sits in the top 5 performances of 2022 on figures.
Martin Fuchs (4) had emotions running high before a fence was even jumped in the Geneva Grand Prix. Clooney&rsquo;s retirement was one of the moments of 2022, but within a couple of hours we were taken to a completely different spectrum of emotion by the Swiss maestro. He took the lead as 12th to go in the jump-off aboard LEONE JEI who was looking for back-to-back wins in the class. There was only one competitor left to jump&hellip;
Daniel Deusser (3) was responsible for an incredible five of the top 25 individual performances of 2022. His win at Spruce Meadows with KILLER QUEEN VDM takes the third spot on our ratings.
Gerrit Nieberg (2) might not have been the first name on the shortlist for performance of the year at the beginning of 2022, but I&rsquo;m sure many would nominate his Aachen win aboard BEN 431 as a massive moment of the year. The performance to win the German feature is always going to challenge the top of the ratings, but this was a home favourite landing the decisive blow as the last to go. Quality, drama and the arrival of a new star to the top table.
McLain Ward (1) and HH AZUR might have all the experience, class and proven ability to win the highest quality of the year, but by the time they had to follow 12 of the best in the Geneva jump-off, the comfort zone must have been a distant spec in the rear-view mirror. They started with a level of pace that signified nothing was going to be left behind. They finished with a breathtaking round that delivered absolutely everything. The algorithm

Photo of rider Steve Guerdat against a grid paper background

Jumping

These horses won their 160 debut & now are rated among the best in the world

Top 40 performances of 2022

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