Last October at Keane Stud, Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz finished third in the Highlands Cup Grand Prix. Twelve months later, the grey gelding has added seven more five-star Grand Prix and World Cup podiums to his résumé, bringing his career total to 22. Only two other horses in the sport have reached that number.

James Kann Cruz has done it from just 44 starts. That works out to a podium exactly half the time he has walked into a five-star ring, the best rate of any horse on the list with more than twenty starts to his name.

James Kann Cruz was more than a podium finisher at Amenia last October. He was one of only eight horses to clear Round 1 and reach the jump-off, and one of nineteen nominated to the Highlands Cup Honor Roll for FEI World Championship selection on the strength of that result.

One Year Later

From third at Amenia to 22 podiums

His most recent podium finishes were both recorded in Traverse City. It was Beat Mändli's day in the Grand Prix itself last Sunday, but James Kann Cruz’s second place added another line to an already remarkable record. Sweetnam has now stood on a Traverse City podium in four different years, 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026, on a horse that first won there as a nine-year-old.

TWENTY-TWO TIMES

ON THE PODIUM

Since 2010

Only three horses have reached 21 or more

Casall Ask leads the field by a wide margin. James Kann Cruz and Hermes Ryan sit tied behind him. Nobody else in the sport has cleared 20 from fewer than 58 starts.

Five-star Grand Prix and World Cup podium finishes, 2010–present.

The Highlands Cup connection: Third at Amenia last year was podium No. 15. Since then, James Kann Cruz has added seven more, bringing his total to 22.

Highlands Cup

Twenty-two times on the podium

Every five-star Grand Prix and World Cup podium for Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz, going back to his first at Traverse City in 2022.

Three wins, thirteen seconds, six thirds. Four different years at Traverse City alone. The list runs from a nine-year-old horse’s first CSI5* win in Michigan in 2022 to a thirteen-year-old campaigner still finding podiums at the same venue four years later. In between sits Amenia, where James Kann Cruz finished third in the inaugural Highlands Cup Grand Prix. From that podium last October, Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz have added seven more five-star podiums, bringing the grey gelding to 22 and into this rarest of company.

The pace has quickened. It took just over three years, from that first podium in Dublin in August 2022 to third place at Amenia in October 2025, for James Kann Cruz to reach 15 five-star finishes. In the eleven months since, he has added seven more.

This year’s Highlands Cup runs October 8 through 12 at Keane Stud, the fourth leg of Major League Show Jumping’s new season. One year after finishing third in the inaugural Grand Prix, Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz return to Amenia with 22 podiums behind them and a record that continues to grow.