Max Kühner Wins the Paris Stage of the Global Champions Tour

Max Kühner knows all too well what it feels like to spray champagne on the Global Champions Tour podiums. In 2024, the Austrian won the overall title in the show jumping series. Today, he stood on the top step of the podium at the 2026 leg in Paris—thanks to his Chacco Blue son, Up Too Jacco Blue. Once again, the Irish gelding proved that he’s always capable of a fast clear round.

The pricking

Kühner was the fourth rider to start in the jump-off. Up to that point, Christian Ahlmann had set the pace in the six-rider jump-off with a clear round in 40.29 seconds on his ten-year-old Untouched LB, a son of Richard Vogels’ United Touch S. But Kühner’s 15-year-old Irish horse, with all his experience, easily beat that time. The clock stopped at 38.36 seconds.

Kühner had two more close calls. And they were real close calls, because with Denis Lynch riding the 17-year-old Casall son Cordial and Olivier Perreau riding his Olympic mare Dorai d’Aiguilly, there were two more pairs who could match Up Too Jacco Blue in terms of quality and experience. But not today.

Lynch of Ireland jumped to second place with a time of 39.89 seconds; Perreau of France was exactly 0.1 seconds slower and finished third. Christian Ahlmann came in fourth behind this trio.

Max Kühner later revealed that he had simply taken advantage of Up Too Jacco Blues’ natural speed in the jump-off. “I knew we’d be pretty fast then,” said the Austrian. The victory was important because of the Super Grand Prix ticket at the end of the season that comes with it, as well as world ranking points, prize money, and so on. But above all, it was a birthday present for one of the owners of Kühner’s winning horse. He was there in Paris and thus had twice the reason to celebrate.

The United States and France

Rounding out the jump-off were Lillie Keenan riding Fasther, who had one knockdown in 39.91 seconds, and dark horse Charlotte Leoni for the French hosts, who—ranked 582nd in the world—had already delighted her home fans simply by qualifying for the jump-off, but also incurred four penalty points here with Cyclone l’Epivent.

Hinners Still in the Money—and More

Christian Ahlmann wasn’t the only German rider to place in the Global Champions Tour show jumping competition in Paris. Sophie Hinners rode her top mare, Combella, to an eleventh-place finish with the third-fastest four-fault round. This meant she, too, finished in the money.

Daniel Deußer and Pepita van’t Meulenhof had five penalty points in the first round, while Jörne Sprehe on Toys and Philipp Weishaupt on Chaquitos PS each had eight. Marco Kutscher, who had won the Global Champions League on Friday, incurred 16 faults today riding Cool Fox, his German Championship silver medalist.

You can find all the results from the Global Champions Tour in Paris here.