December 1, 2024 
Piergeorgio Bucci had a straight forward strategy heading into Sunday’s 13-horse jump-off for Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ at Madrid: “just go faster than [Maikel] van der Vleuten.”
That’s precisely what they did—0.71 seconds faster to be exact.
Bucci and Hantano were the only pair to jump double clear in a sub-41 second time over Javier Trenor’s short course at IFEMA Madrid Horse Week, stopping the clock at 40.77 seconds. Micheal Pender (IRL) and HHS Los Angeles took second in 41.42. Three-time Olympic medalist van der Vleuten (NED) and Beauville Z N.O.P. settled for third in 41.48.
“I know my horse is very, very fast. I thought, well, this is a very good jump off for me,” said Bucci. He’s the first Italian to win the Madrid leg of the Western European League.
“It’s an amazing feeling, I really like this show, I’ve often been placed here but never close to winning so I’m really happy!”
A veteran of the Italian team, Bucci has won 19 Grands Prix since 2015 (Jumpr stats). His last 5* Grand Prix win, however, was nearly a decade ago, the 2016 LGCT Grand Prix of Cascais Estorial, Spain, aboard Casallo Z.
Hantano looks to be changing that trend.
The 12-year-old KWPN gelding was developed by the Netherland’s Loewie Joppen and campaigned by Canadian amateur rider and Bucci student, Karina Frederiks up to the 1.50m level. He’d jumped one 1.60m, a 2* World Cup qualifier in Poland with Joppen, prior to the Italian rider taking over the reins in May 2023.
In the year and a half since, the pair has landed seven podium finishes at the 1.50m and 155m heights, including three wins, and earned over €211k in prize money.
But it’s the past four months that they’ve seen the most success.
Bucci and bay gelding were third in a 3* Grand Prix at Opglabbeek, Germany in August and won both the CSIO4* Nations Cup in Warsaw in September and a 4* Grand Prix in Valencia in October. Sunday’s World Cup qualifier is their first 5* Grand Prix win and first 1.60m win.
“My horse is amazing, fast and a winner! He has a funny style, but he’s really good and I hope we will have more wins!” said Bucci.
With his Leg 6 win, the Italian rider is now tied at 16th place in the Western European League rankings with eight more qualifiers to the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final at Basel (SUI) to come.
France’s Kevin Staut leads the standings on 49 total points, with Germany’s Richard Vogel in second on 42 and Gregory Wathelet in third on 36.
The league stays in Spain for Leg 7, moving to A Coruña on December 8.
