Rating or form? Previewing the Vienna and Greenwich

Two five-star Grands Prix. One weekend. In Vienna, the Longines Global Champions Tour jumps in front of Schönbrunn Palace from 24 to 27 September. Over the same four days, Major League Show Jumping lands in Greenwich, Connecticut, for the third leg of its season.

Both fields pose the same question: does the rating or the recent form tell us more? In Vienna, Beauville Z N.O.P. is rated higher than anyone, but Cordial has jumped six clears from seven five-star 1.60m rounds this year. In Greenwich, Shane Sweetnam has the top-rated horse. Kent Farrington, last year’s winner, has the one on a run.

All figures cover 2026 results at five-star 1.60m and championship level.

Vienna: the deeper field

Vienna has 73 horses with 2026 form at the level. Nineteen are rated 700 or more. Greenwich has ten. The top of the Vienna list reads like a championship start list.

Hinners arrives on a high

Sophie Hinners & Iron Dames Combella arrive in Vienna with Hinners a new team world champion. Combella is on a season-high rating of 767. Beauville Z and Alcapone des Carmille have both slipped from their 2026 highs. Combella is heading the other way.

Six clears from 12 rounds where the field went clear 30% of the time, plus a win and two podiums.

Cordial has the clears. Now he needs the win.

Denis Lynch & Cordial have the best clear-round record of the 115 horses across both shows. Six clears from seven rounds is 86%. The field went clear on those courses 32% of the time.

His rating of 739 is a season high. The missing piece is the finish. Cordial has one podium and no wins at the level this year.

The top rated

Maikel van der Vleuten & Beauville Z N.O.P. hold the highest rating in either show at 771.

Beauville Z has jumped four rounds at the level this year. Two were clear, and none ended on the podium. Van der Vleuten’s second ride, Jesther, is rated lower at 698 but has three clears from four this season.

The leader, the holder and the home side

Abdel Saïd leads the Tour standings. His Wathnan Zasou vom Claashof has a win and two podiums this year, with four clears from 11 rounds. Yuri Mansur comes in off his Grand Prix win in Valkenswaard three weeks ago.

Philipp Weishaupt won this Grand Prix last year with Kilmister. The horse has had a tougher 2026. Kilmister has no clears from three rounds at the level, and his rating has dropped to 622. Weishaupt’s Oreo D.R. has the steadier year, with two podiums from 12 rounds.

Katharina Rhomberg leads the Austrian challenge. Colestus Cambridge has a win and two podiums and a rating of 725. Her second horse, Cuma 5, went clear three times in five on courses where the field managed just 19%.

Greenwich: fewer clears, smaller margins

Greenwich has 42 horses with 2026 form at the level, and 25 of them have yet to jump a clear round.

Farrington has the horse in form

Kent Farrington won the Greenwich Grand Prix last year, his eighth five-star Grand Prix win of 2025. This time Descartes SR sits only eighth on the rating list. The results tell a different story.

Four podiums from five results, one of them a win. Four clears from six rounds, where the field went clear a quarter of the time. His rating of 704 is a season high and still rising.

Sweetnam has the rating

Shane Sweetnam & Coriaan van Klapscheut Z top the Greenwich list at 742, with four clears from eight rounds, a win and another podium. That win came in the MLSJ Toronto Grand Prix earlier this month, with Farrington and Descartes SR second.

No Greenwich horse with four or more rounds has had fewer fences down. Coriaan averages two faults a round. The catch is the courses. The field went clear 36% of the time on them, the easiest set of anyone in that group.

One Bluman up, one down

The Bluman brothers hold the second and third best ratings in Greenwich and have had very different years. Mark Bluman & Landon de Nyze (739) have three clears from eight on courses where the field went clear 21% of the time, plus a win and two podiums.

Daniel Bluman & Corbie V.V. (734) have one clear from eight, and the rating is slightly down from a high of 752.

What to watch

Clears could be hard to come by in Greenwich. The horses that leave the fences up will have the edge, and Descartes SR arrives in the form of his life, with four podiums from five results.

Vienna should be a different story. The field is deep and packed with high-rated horses, so expect a strong jump-off where the ratings come into play. Cordial has the most reliable clear record of anyone on the list, and a fast round on Sunday could turn that into his first win of the season.

The swing horse is Beauville Z. At his best, he has the rating to set the standard in Vienna. Iron Dames Combella, Chatolinue PS and Cordial will all be ready if he leaves the door open.

The rating says Beauville Z and Coriaan. The clears say Cordial and Descartes SR. Who wins in Vienna, and who wins in Greenwich?

The ratings have their picks. The form has its own. Now it comes down to which one you trust.

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