October 25, 2024 
We are less than a month away from the final Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) event of the 2024 season: The highly coveted 1.65m LGCT Super Grand Prix.
The class will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia November 20-23, when all eyes will be on the massive tracks and that hefty, €1.25 million purse. But there’s more than one reason this year’s class could be noteworthy.
To qualify, the 15 entries on the coveted startlist have either won or earned a runner-up position thanks to a top spot in the 15 LGCT Grands Prix of the regular season. Along with the usual suspects (cough Olympic Champions), the 2024 LGCT Super Grand Prix will include five athletes 30 years of age or younger, a couple of champs questing for a comeback, and both Phillippaerts brothers. (Naturally. No loser siblings in that family.)
In other words, the stage is more than set for a rundown of our favorites, contenders, and rookies to watch in the LGCT Super Grand Prix next month.
Favorites
The 2024 season has been a barnburner for Germany’s Christian Kukuk, who took home not only individual Olympic gold but the runner-up spot in the overall LGCT standings. Kukuk chose Just Be Gentle at LGCT Rabat, meaning he may by gearing Paris mount Checker 47—who just helped clinch the first Longines League of Nations championship for the German team in Barcelona—toward the LGCT Super Grand Prix.
But Kukuk is far from a shoo-in. In Riyadh, he’ll once again face-down LGCT series champion Max Kühner of Austria, who currently ranks 5th in the world for prize money won this year, according to Jumpr. Not to be underestimated: red-hot Janne Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann of Germany, who recently helped lead the Cannes Stars to the 2024 GCL Championship, took third in the LGCT Grand Prix of Rabat and the overall season standings, and currently ranks 9th in the world with a 53% clear round percentage in *5, 1.60+ classes this year.
Contenders
Before this summer, it had been a minute since Italy’s Lorenzo De Luca’s string of five, 1.60m wins between 2016-2018. Then, De Luca and the 11-year-old Denver De Talma rode to victory in the LGCT Grand Prix of Valkenswaard, and a major comeback was suddenly within reach. Especially when you consider that De Luca and Denver jump clear at 57% in 14 rounds at 1.60+.
It’s a similar tale for Belgium’s Pieter Devos, who took home five *5 grand prix wins at 1.60m+ during 2018-2019, but only two in the five years since. Devos qualified for the LGCT Super Grand Prix thanks to his third place finish with the 17-year-old Selle Français mare, Toupie De La Roque, at LGCT London. But his top horse of late is the 9-year-old Zangersheide mare, Casual DV Z, with whom he finishes in the top 10 at 56% in 16 rounds at 1.60+.
Rookies to Watch
Could the 2024 LGCT Super Grand Prix be a kind of changing of the guard for show jumping? The five, 30-and-under riders making their Super Grand Prix debut this November certainly hope so. Comprising a full third of the startlist, they include Ireland’s Michael Duffy (30), Belgium’s Gilles Thomas (26), Norway’s Johan Sebastian Gulliksen (28), France’s Ines Joly (27), and Belgium’s Thibeau Spits (23).
Among these wunderkinds, though, Gilles Thomas has the clear edge. Not only did he just check the box on pressure-cooker competition during his first Olympic Games this summer, he also boasts some pretty impressive numbers at this height, jumping clear at 43% in 28 rounds at 1.60m+. With top horse and Paris mount Ermitage Kalone, that stats jumps to a standout 56%.
