June 22, 2026 
Max Kühner knows a thing or two about a champagne shower. The Austrian rider currently ranks among the top eight show jumpers in the world for 5* 1.60m podium finishes, according to Jumpr, earning five already at the half-way point of the 2026 season.
On Saturday, June 20, during the LGCT Grand Prix of Paris, however, Kühner did one better.
Riding his longtime partner, the 15-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding EIC Up Too Jacco Blue, the pair defeated a competitive startlist of 40 combinations to earn victory in the City of Lights. It’s a win that comes on the heels of their third-place finish together just one week ago in the LGCT Grand Prix of Ramatuelle, St. Tropez.
“Quite a long time ago, I won my last one, so I’m always happy when it happens again,” Kühner said of his last LGCT Grand Prix win in St. Tropez, Ramatuelle with EIC Up Too Jacco Blue back in 2024.
A tight, 79-second time allowed proved challenging in the first round, which saw a handful of athletes leaving all the fences in place only to find their jump-off hopes dashed by a costly time-fault. Six pairs moved on to the second round, where pathfinders Christian Ahlmann (GER) & Untouched LB set a clear time to beat of 40.29 seconds.
The next two combinations—Lillie Keenan (USA) and Fasther and Charlotte Leoni (FRA) and Cyclone l’Epivent—took decidedly different approaches to the jump-off, but each suffered the same, one-rail-down result. Next to go, Kühner made the most of his gelding’s natural power and footspeed to stop the clock at 38.36 seconds.
That time was ultimately uncatchable for the following two riders, despite logging double-clears: France’s Olivier Perreau and GL Events Dorai d’Aiguilly, who finished third; and runner-up Denis Lynch of Ireland with Cordial.
“The main difference was [EIC Up Too Jacco Blue],” Kühner explained. “He’s a naturally fast horse, so I just needed to use this flow and then I knew we would be quite quick.”
In addition to their LGCT victories in Paris and St. Tropez, Kühner and EIC Up Too Jacco Blue finished second in LGCT Grands Prix in Monaco in 2024 and Valkenswaard in 2023. The gelding was also one of two horses Kühner selected for his last two FEI Jumping World Cup Finals appearances in 2024 and 2025, finishing seventh and tenth, respectively.
According to Jumpr, EIC Up Too Jacco Blue is also Kühner’s top-earning horse, with just under €1,649,000 in total prize money over the last six years. Together, the pair jumps clear at a 47% clip in 58 rounds at 1.60m+, but they finish on the podium an impressive 57% of the time in 14 career jump-offs.
With this win, Kühner moves into second place in the LGCT standings on 135 points, just behind Belgium’s Abdel Saïd on 140. Next up: the series moves on to its final venue on the French Riviera at LGCT Monaco (July 2-4), with eight stops remaining in the regular season.
