Back from an injury that could have stopped her momentum dead, Anastasia Nielsen answered in the simplest possible way: by winning. In Ramatuelle–Saint-Tropez, the Swiss rider competing under Monegasque colours claimed the 5* Grand Prix of the Longines Global Champions Tour with ESI Rocky, ahead of Thibeau Spits and Max Kühner. A generational podium, almost insolent: 20 years old for her, 25 for him, and the two of them combined still younger than the rider in third. The future? It did not even knock. It walked straight in.

Youth stole the keys to Pampelonne

There was star power, obviously. In Saint-Tropez, you do not just turn up to check whether the sand sticks to your loafers. The 5* Grand Prix of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Ramatuelle offered €500,000 in prize money, a field packed with champions, medallists and regulars on XXL podiums. In short, everything needed for the old owners of the circuit to lock up the shop.

Except they did not.

The 1.60m course cleaned house with all the subtlety of a bouncer at three in the morning. Result: only two clears in the first round. Two U25 riders. Anastasia Nielsen with ESI Rocky and Thibeau Spits with Impress-K van’t Kattenheye Z. Not exactly the “experience management and polished leather” scenario. More like “new wave, clean studs, dirty ambition”. 

Nielsen asks the question, Spits misses the answer

In the jump-off, Nielsen went first. Not exactly the gift of the century. No time to chase, no instruction manual, just a track, a horse and that very modern obligation: put the pressure on before the other rider has time to breathe.

The Monegasque by adoption did the job. Better: she cleaned it. Double clear, 43.55 seconds. A clear line in the sand: if Thibeau Spits wanted to win, he was going to have to come and take it with his teeth.

The Belgian attacked. Normal. At 25, world number one in the FEI U25 rankings for several months, he had not come to the Côte d’Azur to collect postcards. But a rail fell in the jump-off. Four faults. 45.49 seconds. Anastasia Nielsen could raise her arms. Saint-Tropez had just chosen the face of its weekend. 

From Doha to Saint-Tropez, the shortcut that stings

his victory would already have had style without the context. With it, it takes on another dimension.

In February, Anastasia Nielsen was sidelined from competition after a fall in Doha, with a stable fracture at L3. No surgery announced, but a forced pause, patience, rehab, and that thing riders cordially hate: watching others ride while the horses carry on with their lives without you. 

Her return to 5* competition began to take shape in Madrid in mid-May, with the Cannes Stars powered by Iron Dames. One month later, here she is winning in Saint-Tropez. As discreet comebacks go, we have seen quieter. 

Rabat was no accident

There had been a question since Rabat. A real one. In October 2025, Anastasia Nielsen, then 19, won her first LGCT 5* Grand Prix with Action Man, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the circuit. It was big, it was beautiful, and maybe it was one perfect evening. The kind of evening that sometimes gets filed away in the miracle box. 

Saint-Tropez has just closed the box.

With her 11-year-old gelding ESI Rocky (Stakkato Gold x For Pleasure), Nielsen signs her second LGCT Grand Prix victory. Not with the same horse, not in the same setting, not with the same status. This time, she is no longer just the kid surprising the adults. She is the one the adults will have to start calculating.

And in a sport that loves filing prodigies under “one to watch”, that is a small administrative revolution.

Spits second, but not really beaten

On the Belgian side, Thibeau Spits leaves without the win, but certainly not without a message. The U25 world leader confirmed his consistency at the highest level after another strong weekend and a GCL podium with the Prague Lions powered by Czech Equestrian Team. He tried. He had to try. Anastasia had set a time, and he had to answer with something other than a greeting card.

He finished second, yes. But second in a 5* Grand Prix where only two combinations found the exit without penalty in the first round. That is the kind of defeat that still does plenty for a CV. While his teammates were performing over in La Baule, he was staking a claim on a room in Aachen at the end of August, preferably with a view of the Soers, a stable with fresh shavings.

Kühner, the third man and the reminder

Behind the two young guns, Max Kühner completed the podium with EIC Up Too Jacco Blue. The Austrian, 2024 LGCT champion, produced the fastest four-fault round of the first round. One rail too many to play in the jump-off, but enough class to remind everyone that the old world has not yet gone to feed the ponies at the bottom of the garden. 

The number is delicious: Nielsen, 20, and Spits, 25, make 45 years between them. Kühner is 52. Not an old fossil, no. But let’s say the podium had the feel of a family lunch where the kids stole the car before dessert.

Next stop: Paris, and fewer certainties

The Global Champions Tour now heads to Paris, with the championship still wide open and a hierarchy starting to look like a badly stacked box of poles: it moves, it falls, it surprises. Above all, Saint-Tropez reminded everyone of one thing: the big names remain big, but the youngsters are no longer politely waiting their turn.

Find the full results of the LGCT Grand Prix of Ramatuelle–St Tropez here.

(Photos ©LGCT/Ljuba Buzzola)