April 13, 2026 
Kent Farrington is an Olympic silver medalist, a two-time Pan American team gold and individual silver medalist, and a two-time former World No. 1. The 45-year-old American rider currently has 85 Grands Prix wins on his resume, trailing the sport’s winningest Grand Prix rider of all time, Julien Epaillard (FRA), by just two victories (Jumpr).
Which is to say, it would be fully understandable if, perhaps, the bright lights of the top of the podium are sparkling a little less brilliantly for Farrington than they used to. But when the newly anointed FEI Jumping World Cup™ Finals Champion of Fort Worth was asked what this particular victory meant to him, his answer was uncharacteristically emotional.
“The World Cup final is special to me because that’s what I grew up watching. We didn’t have access to high level shows, we had the video tapes of the World Cup Final, and I would get [those] every single year,” said the Chicago native and self-made athlete, who famously grew up riding at the same downtown stable that housed the city’s carriage horses.
“I would study all of the riders, and pretend like I could ride like them, on the tape. That’s how old I am, that we would have like a cassette that we could put in [the VCR],” Farrington joked. “I would watch it so much I would burn through the cassette on the tape.
“To be here, winning it today, is very special to me, and I’m very proud to have my name on the trophy.”
There’s no denying that over four rounds of jumping spread across four days, Farrington—aboard his leading ladies Toulayna and Greya—came, saw, and conquered the 2026 Finals in superb fashion. A single rail down with Greya during Round 3 was their only misstep, holding onto pole position from start to finish, and winning each individual class as well.
With this win, Farrington becomes the fifth, consecutive rider in a row to win the entire competition after taking a victory in the Table C speed class on Day 1. The fact that he did it on two different mounts—the only other rider in the Finals to compete multiple horses besides Brazil’s Yuri Mansur—is even more impressive.
“I think it’s important [to note] that I rode two horses here that brought me to this victory. I couldn’t have done it without Toulayna on Day 1,” he said. “I have two exceptional mares, and they put me in a position that I am here to win this title.”
But Farrington wasn’t alone in his sentimentality about this particular championship.
Former Finals winner Daniel Deusser, who took the title in 2014 with Cornet d’Amour, achieved a second place this year riding Otello De Guldenboom. The 12-year-old Belgian stallion is the son of Deusser’s famous former mount, Scuderia 1918 Tobago Z, who finished fourth in this Championship in 2019, but never quite managed a podium finish.
“Today, [Otello] really tried his heart out,” Deusser reflected. “He did his very best, and I have to say, I’m very proud of him.”
Third-place finisher Katie Dinan (USA) earned her first podium finish on home soil at a major championship with the Spy Coast Farm-bred Out of the Blue SCF. The pair also repeated a double-clear effort on Day 3—notorious for being the biggest and most challenging rounds of the competition—for the second consecutive year.
“I’m in awe of my horse, Out Of the Blue. She was spectacular every day, jumping clear Thursday, Friday, and both rounds today—I owe everything to her,” said Dinan who, at just 32, is making her seventh appearance at this particular championship.
The American rider explained that her team makes FEI Jumping World Cup Finals the center of its focus every year, for an equally personal reason. “My coach, Beat Mändli [SUI], won in 2007, and like Kent, I was watching on TV. Well, maybe Kent was already riding in the World Cup [Final],” Dinan joked. (He was: in 2006 with Madison and 2008 with Up Chiqui.)
“But, similar idea—I also grew up watching these championships on TV and thinking that’s where all the big riders were,” Dinan continued, adding that, for her, this year’s finish was a kind of full-circle moment, given the men she was seated next to.
“My second final I jumped was when Daniel Deusser won in 2014, so it’s really cool for me to be on the podium with these superstars.”
