Valkenswaard & Toronto By the Numbers

Two five-star competitions run simultaneously this weekend offering plenty of exciting sport to watch. The Longines Global Champions Tour returns to Valkenswaard for its three-day flagship stop, the deepest 5-star field of the two. Major League Show Jumping opens its new season the same weekend at Toronto, a smaller field built around one exceptional horse.

The highest current Elo of the weekend doesn't sit in the Dutch field of major winners. It belongs to Kent Farrington and Greya in Toronto. Valkenswaard counters with numbers instead of a peak: nine combinations arrive above a 740 Elo, more than four times what Toronto can field. Different venue, different question. Depth, or one exceptional horse?

Everyone below is entered for the week, not confirmed for a specific Grand Prix. Start lists and final fields can still change before the weekend's biggest classes.

Valkenswaard: strength in numbers

Riders from more than 20 nations line up at Longines Tops International Arena this weekend, and the Elo table reads like a roll call of the current 5* circuit. Maikel van der Vleuten and Beauville Z N.O.P. sit on top, with Harrie Smolders and Monaco closely behind to rival.

Beauville Z N.O.P. & Maikel van der Vleuten

No horse in either field carries more career form. Van der Vleuten's gelding owns a 771 Elo and a 56.1% career clear rate at 5*/major championship 1m60 across 123 rounds, the best combination of rating and reliability in either dataset. Twenty-seven podiums from 111 career classifications is the record of a partnership that makes any venue's discussion open with its name, and Valkenswaard is the one with the deepest history behind it.

Monaco & Harrie Smolders

Smolders and Monaco carry more podiums than anyone else in either field, 33 from 90 classifications, with nine wins to match Beauville Z stride for stride. The clear rate sits lower, 48.6% against Beauville Z's 56.1%, and that gap is the difference between Valkenswaard's two model favourites this weekend.

Two different reads on Elo

Olivier Perreau and GL Events Dorai d'Aiguilly sit well inside the leading pack on Elo, a 759 rating built on 71 career classifications. The clear rate tells a different part of the story: 26.7% at 5*/major championship 1m60, the lowest of the top nine, and worth keeping an eye on this weekend.

Gregory Wathelet and Bond Jamesbond de Hay make the opposite case. A 764 Elo backed by a 51.7% clear rate and 16 podiums from 49 classifications is a quieter name than the two favourites but a more complete one, four wins with Wathelet in the irons alone. Scott Brash also has two names inside the top nine, Hello Chadora Lady at 767 and Hello Folie close behind at 763, giving him more depth in this field than anyone bar Farrington has in Toronto.

Toronto: one name, two horses, a big gap

Major League Show Jumping opens its new season this weekend at Toronto with a field a fraction of the size of Valkenswaard's. Kent Farrington and Greya carry the highest current rating anywhere on this weekend's card, 784, with Landon de Nyze, now with Mark Bluman, the only other horse in the field above 740.

Greya & Kent Farrington

Greya's number goes beyond Toronto. The mare won the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Fort Worth this April, and the career figures back the result up: a 784 Elo and a 54.8% clear rate at 5*/major championship 1m60 across 42 rounds, both comfortably the best in the Toronto field. A five-star Grand Prix win in the Hamptons last week proves this pair is on form and ready for competition.

Landon de Nyze & Mark Bluman

The second-highest Elo in the Toronto field arrives with Mark Bluman in the irons. While the pair is still relatively new, with seven rounds, a 42.9% clear rate, one win, and two podiums, it’s an encouraging start on a horse whose underlying quality is undeniable. This speedy combination will definitely be one to watch this weekend.

The rest of the field

Everyone else in Toronto sits in a tighter band. Daniel Bluman's Corbie V.V., defending champion of this Grand Prix, has the best clear rate of the group at 55.6% from 27 rounds. Conor Swail's Casturano is close behind at 50.0%. Shane Sweetnam's Coriaan van Klapscheut Z carries a higher Elo than either, 733, on a smaller sample so far, a 30.0% clear rate from 10 rounds. Kent Farrington's other mount, Descartes SR, has jumped only five rounds at this level but gone clear in three of them, worth watching if he's on the entry list.

Valkenswaard says depth wins majors. Toronto says one exceptional horse can be enough. The Elo table says Farrington. The podium count says Van der Vleuten and Smolders are still setting the pace in Europe. Who's on your podium?