A golden partnership: Scott Brash and Hello Sanctos

©Stefano Grasso/LGCT

By Media Release

Britain’s Scott Brash MBE, a builder’s son from Peebles, has had an incredible year. An incredible three years, to be fair. With three major Championship medals, two consecutive Longines Global Champions Tour titles and one of the longest stints at World No One in the last ten years, not to mention over €775,000 in prize money won on the Tour alone over the past two seasons (excluding Scott's two €300,000 Championship bonuses), the duo are close to unbeatable. Here we look back at how one of the great partnerships of modern show jumping came about...

Plucked from relative obscurity by 1970’s show jumping hero David Broome OBE in 2011, Scottish-born Brash was recommended to Lord and Lady Harris and Lord and Lady Kirkham as the rider with whom they could make an Olympic medal bid at London 2012. After careful searching, Broome finally found the horse with equal talent that could partner ice-cool 26-year-old Scott at the London Olympics - Sanctos Van Het Gravenhof, a bay gelding sired by Quasimodo VD Molendreef. Previously ridden by Peter Wylde (USA) and Katharina Offel (UKR), Sanctos had a reputation for jumping clear rounds and he was quickly purchased in late December 2011 before the Olympic horse transfer deadline expired. “I knew he was special the first time I sat on him,” says Brash. 

Having tried the horse only once and with just seven months to form a strong partnership Scott and Sanctos, renamed with the ‘Hello’ prefix associated with all the Harris and Kirkham horses, set about getting to know each other at the Winter Equestrian Festival, Wellington, Florida. In early March the pair won their first 4* World Cup Qualifier and went on to put in strong performances in both the Rome and Rotterdam Nation’s Cups for Team GBR before heading to the 2012 London Olympics where they claimed Team Gold and finished 5th individually. “When I think about the fact that I only got the ride on Sanctos at the end of 2011 and the way we bonded along with the confidence I have in him, it’s quite remarkable. But he’s a winner,” says Scott.

In 2013, their partnership really took off over the course of the season, winning European Team Gold - Britain’s first European title in 24 years - as well as as an Individual Bronze medal. Scott and Sanctos hit the pinnacle of their season late in 2013 by claiming a dramatic record-breaking double victory - the Longines GCT Doha Grand Prix and 2013 Championship title in one go - on Scott’s 28th birthday. Off the back of a fantastic year, Scott became World Number One in November 2013 and there he has stayed for whole year - the first rider to complete a full 12 months at No1 since Marcus Ehning (GER) in 2006. 

The 2014 Longines Global Champions Tour series once again belonged to Brash and Hello Sanctos as the pair continued to break records by winning an unprecedented three Grand Prix in the run up to the World Championships - Cannes, Cascais and London. Unfortunately, despite going into the competition as one of the favourites, the World Championships did not go their way and the pair withdrew part way through the competition when they dropped out of contention. But they where yet to peak. Scott and Sanctos came back with a bang in Doha, the final leg of the season, leaping up from 3d to steal the Championship win from the legendary Ludger Beerbaum (GER) and one of Sweden's most beloved sportsmen Rolf-Göran Bengtsson. Excluded from the final jump-off to fight for the Grand Prix win due to an excruciating time fault in the first round, Scott finished 4th putting him on the same points as Bengtsson but ahead on a technicality due to his incredible number of wins over the series. 

“Sanctos is an unbelievable horse. I am so lucky to have him, his strike rate is incredible. I want to enjoy it while I have him and I hope to win many more titles with him. I will definitely be targeting The Tour again next year. It’s fantastic to be a part of it,” said 2014 Champion Scott Brash. 

Source: Global Champions Tour