Ben Maher won the Rotterdam Grand Prix

What a weekend the British show jumpers had in Rotterdam! First, they won the League of Nations leg on Friday after a thrilling comeback, and then today, one of them made sure that “God Save the King” rang out in the Grand Prix as well. Ben Maher was the lucky one who left 48 competitors in the dust in one of show jumping’s classic events, this time riding the Swedish stallion Point Break.

Of the 49 starters, eleven had qualified for the jump-off. That’s when things really heated up. In the end, less than a full second separated the pairs in the top three spots. Until Ben Maher and Point Break—a son of Action Breaker—entered the fray for the win, local hero Willem Greve was still in the lead on the wonderful Grandorado. Spurred on by the support of their fans, the pair had already swept through the course in 43.97 seconds as the fourth combination.

It took four pairs before Greve saw Maher and Point Break take the lead in 42.98 seconds. The final pair in the jump-off were New Zealander Luke Dee and Gangster WW. Dee is ranked 336th in the world, so on paper he was the rider with the least chance of finishing in the top spots. However, he and his ten-year-old OS gelding by Grand Slam are no strangers to the competition. After all, they competed in the 2025 World Cup Final. So it wasn’t really a huge surprise that they managed, with a clear round in 43.14 seconds, to at least finish ahead of Willem Greve.

But there was no disputing the victory of Ben Maher and Point Break. Luke Dee finished second, ahead of Greve.

The only German pair in the jump-off were Richard Vogel and Cloudio, a son of Casall out of Holstein, who had already been the only pair to ride clear for Germany on Friday in the League of Nations leg. Today, the gray horse once again kept all the poles down in both rounds. Their time was good enough for fifth place.

It was time for a win again

Ben Maher was overjoyed with his victory, though not with his ride. “The jump-off didn’t go quite as planned. There was a brief scare at the green oxer—at that moment, it felt worse than it actually looked on video.” He was all the more pleased that it was still enough to take first place. “This is a wonderful victory for me and my team back home. I’ve had many highlights in my career, but it’s been a while since I won a 5* Grand Prix,” said the rider ranked fourth in the world.

Maher knew exactly who he had to thank for the victory. “He (Point Break) is an incredibly good horse, one of the best I’ve ever ridden. By nature, he has a slightly shorter stride, but he’s smart and athletic; the way he clears the jumps is so fluid—sometimes it looks as if he has no bones in his body.”

A little side note: It was precisely this quality of Point Break that convinced Felicia Wallin, Richard Vogel’s stable manager, to breed her own show jumping mare to Point Break. At the time, the son of Action Breaker from a Dutch mare line was still an unknown young stallion, and she herself was still a long way from working for Vogel and Will.

Ben Maher seemed relieved and grateful after the award ceremony as he explained: “We’ve been coming in second a lot lately. Of course, everything has to come together at a competition, and you need a little bit of luck, too. Riding at this level week after week is a challenge. I have fantastic horses and great support, so there are no excuses: I have to deliver. It’s great that it worked out today and that I can take this victory home with me.”

Learning from the Best

New Zealander Luke Dee was also overjoyed. He saw his second-place finish as confirmation that he is on the right track—a path on which he has been receiving prominent support for some time now.

“I’ve been training with Nick Skelton and Laura Kraut for a year and a half,” Dee explained. “The course was challenging, but my horse performed fantastically. We were both still quite inexperienced, so a result like this here is wonderful.”

And it’s both a confirmation and an incentive. “I hope we can continue to make such good progress as we head toward the World Equestrian Games at the end of the summer,” Dee said.

Grandorado? The older, the better!

Willem Greve was satisfied, but he also said, “When you’re one of the first to compete in the jump-off, you know that you’re essentially setting a benchmark for the riders who follow. They can still surpass your performance. And unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened today.”

He was more than satisfied with his 15-year-old stallion. “He jumped superbly and just keeps getting better as he gets older. I’m getting to know him better and better; under saddle, he’s really becoming more and more of a true partner to me. I’m very happy with him.”

Speaking on behalf of the hosts, Greve spoke from the heart when he praised the organizers in Rotterdam. “It was an exciting competition, and I’d like to thank the organizers for their hospitality. As riders, we greatly appreciate the dedication of the team and the many volunteers who make this event possible. The CHIO Rotterdam is rightly considered one of the great classics in equestrian sports,” said Greve.

And who else stood out?

Among the placers were Olympic champion Rodrigo Pessoa and Major Tom, the now 13-year-old son of Vagabond de la Pomme. The dark chestnut was the talk of the town in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics because of his many successes. He competed through October 2025, though most recently he had been competing primarily in the U.S. Then things went quiet for a while regarding the gelding, and people had almost written him off until he returned to competition in Deauville in early June and promptly placed near the top. On Friday, he competed in the League of Nations team competition; today, he advanced to the jump-off but had a knockdown there, finishing in ninth place.

The Holsteiner Verband was represented by two stallions in this Grand Prix. Arne van Heel rode Keaton HV, who is still based in Elmshorn, and performed very well despite a knockdown in the first round, though not fast enough to place. In addition, Crack HV —once ridden to the Bundeschampionat title by Richard Vogel—made his five-star debut with Egor Shchibrik of Palestine in the saddle. The pair have been a team since July of last year and have won gold at the Asian Games, among other achievements. In their first 5* Grand Prix, they had eight faults.

Mario Stevens and Starissa also made it through the first round with eight faults. René Dittmer and Cody had twelve. The fourth rider on Friday’s German team, Michael Jung, was absent from today’s Grand Prix.

You can find all the results from Rotterdam here.