Gregory Bodo built the five-star tracks at the Highlands Cup, and he made the riders choose between the clock and the poles. In three of the four big classes, the fastest round of the deciding phase had a fence down. The winners went clear and let the others chase.

Spencer Smith and Keeneland were the only double clear in Friday’s 1.55m qualifier. The Trelawny Trailblazers took Saturday’s team gold when Marlon Modolo Zanotelli went clear against McLain Ward. On Sunday, Erynn Ballard won the 1.45m Winning Round by nine hundredths of a second, and Mark Bluman won the $340,000 Grand Prix while five quicker riders collected faults.

Ward came closest all week. He was second in the qualifier, took team silver and was second again in the Winning Round.

FRIDAY’S QUALIFIER

ONE CLEAR, ONE WINNER

$181,170 Airshare Qualifier · 1.55m

Smith goes first and stays there

Forty-three combinations were on the start list. Smith was the first to go clear in the opening round and the first back in for the jump-off. He stopped the clock in 35.57. Nobody else went clear against it.

Top three in the jump-off.

Spencer Smith & Keeneland · USA

A partnership built for this

Smith and Keeneland have been a partnership since 2023, and their best days have come in team colours. The Zangersheide gelding was part of Nations Cup wins for the US in Dublin in 2024 and Falsterbo in 2025. Amenia is familiar ground for Smith too, after his two-star Grand Prix win here last year. On Friday he won at five-star level on the same ground.

Drawn first in the jump-off, Smith set a target and left it to the others to beat. Two came close on the clock. McLain Ward and First Lady crossed the line in 33.71, and Christian Kukuk and HK Carrera stopped it in 34.34. Both rounds came with a rail down, and the clean 35.57 stood.

The Highlands Cup connection: Skylar Wireman and Barclino B won this class in 2025 and returned to defend it, one of several combinations to come back to Amenia after last year’s first edition.

SATURDAY’S TEAM CLASS

THE TRAILBLAZERS STRIKE

$200,000 MLSJ Team Class · 1.50m

Zanotelli finishes it

Team KPF led the season standings coming in but were not in Amenia, which left room for the rest to move. The Trelawny Trailblazers and the DIHP Roadrunners reached the gold-medal jump-off.

Ward went first for the Roadrunners on First Lady and had two down, finishing on a time of 49.74. Zanotelli came in last for the Trailblazers on Rockwell RC with a margin to work with. He went clear in 47.21.

Trelawny Trailblazers

Three horses, three clears

Charlotte Jacobs & Rincoola Milsean were clear in both rounds at Highlands for the second year running. Jacobs said afterwards the gelding has never had a rail in this ring.

Alex Matz & Clarimo also went double clear. The nine-year-old has now been clear in four of his five team outings for the Trailblazers this season.

Marlon Modolo Zanotelli & Rockwell RC closed it out. The combination has gone clear in every team appearance they have completed.

The standings

Roadrunners move to the top

Silver for Kaitlin Campbell, Ward and Shane Sweetnam lifted the DIHP Roadrunners to first in the team standings. The bronze came down to a head-to-head between Nicole Walker and Richard Vogel, world No. 1. Walker won it for the Northern Lights, their first podium of the season. 

SUNDAY’S GRAND PRIX

THE 50TH GOES TO BLUMAN

$340,000 Highlands Cup Grand Prix · 1.60m

Five faster, five with faults

Thirty-six combinations from 12 nations started the 50th Major League Show Jumping five-star Grand Prix, with six of the world’s top ten in the field. Our preview put the field’s clear rate at this level at one round in four. Twelve of the 36 went clear in the rain, one in three.

Twelve came back for the jump-off. Bluman went clear in 36.32, and five riders went faster, but every one of them had a fence down. Five pairs finished on zero.

Mark Bluman & Landon De Nyze · ISR

From Greenwich to the 50th

Bluman and Landon De Nyze were sixth in Greenwich two weeks ago. On Sunday in Amenia, they claimed their second five-star Grand Prix win together, and their first MLSJ Grand Prix.

They came in joint third on the Elo list, level with Daniel Bluman’s Corbie V.V. on 746, and had jumped clear in half their rounds together at this level. Their first five-star win came at Spruce Meadows in June.

Elo is an overall performance rating that measures a horse’s quality across its recent results. The higher the number, the better.

Head to Head

The ratings against the result

Our preview ranked the top ten horses at Amenia by Elo. Here is how the eight in the Grand Prix finished.

Elo before the Highlands Cup. Toulayna (783) and For Gold (725) were not in the Grand Prix.

Six of the eight made the jump-off. The highest-rated horse in the class was the fastest in it. Shane Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz came in on 790, a career high, and stopped the clock almost two seconds inside Bluman’s time. One rail down left them sixth.

Acota M, tenth on the list at 718, finished third. Natalie Dean and the speedy mare went clear twice in 37.65. Jessica Mendoza was second on the 10-year-old mare Ascadina PP Z in 37.31, a week after winning the Grand Prix of Barcelona with In The Air. 

Nina Mallevaey, Kukuk and Farrington were all quicker than Bluman, each with four faults. Descartes SR came in clear in four of five rounds at this level and added a fifth in Round 1. Lillie Keenan and Kick On were 1.44 seconds faster than the winner but had 12 faults. Corbie V.V. cleared Round 1 again, adding to the most clear first rounds in MLSJ history, and finished tenth.

The Highlands Cup connection: James Kann Cruz and Corbie V.V. both cleared Round 1 of the inaugural Grand Prix at Keane Stud last October and finished third and ninth. Both made the jump-off again this year.

SUNDAY’S WINNING ROUND

NINE HUNDREDTHS

$31,100 Bridlemont Winning Round · 1.45m

Ballard edges Ward

Twenty-three combinations started Sunday morning. Five were clear in both rounds. Jordan Coyle and For Gold, joint eighth on the week’s Elo list at 725, were the fastest in the second round in 39.44 but had a fence down and finished sixth.

Erynn Ballard & Genius De Rance · CAN

Closing the week as they opened it

Ballard and Genius De Rance won the five-star warm up 1.40m Two Phase on Thursday and were second in Saturday’s Individual Round. On Sunday they finished the week with a second win.

THE CHASING PACK

Fifteen hundredths for second to fourth

Ward was second on Hialita B, the 14-year-old mare, in 41.02. Two riders who train with Ward were next. Mckayla Langmeier and the eight-year-old Sans Doute were third in 41.06, four hundredths behind. Stella Wasserman and Tick A Lu, a nine-year-old, were fourth in 41.48.

Only 0.55 seconds separated the top four. Roberto Teran Tafur and Henry Jota Apolonio were fifth, the last of the double clears, in 43.00. Ballard and Ward both ride for the DIHP Roadrunners, so the points went to the same team.

At a glance

Four classes, four winners

Four days, four five-star classes and four different winners. The Highlands Cup gave us a first team gold this season for the Trailblazers, a 50th Grand Prix for the League and jump-offs decided by fractions of a second. Clear rounds won the week, and the ratings didn’t always call it. Keane Stud has set a high bar in just its second year, and next October can’t come soon enough.

Elo ratings and career records are from our Highlands Stars of the Show preview and cover CSI5* 1.60m, major Championship Grand Prix and World Cup level for each horse and rider combination before the Highlands Cup. Results are from the official reports for each class.