Wife of President and founder the Global Champions Tour, Edwina Tops-Alexander won the first Grand Prix of the 2012 GCT season in style by claiming the win yesterday evening.

She was aboard the little guy with the biggest heart Cevo Itot du Chateau. This horse has undoubtably been the staple reason for her climb into and continued presence in the FEI Show Jumping Rankings. She is currently the number one female rider in the world. Tops-Alexander is also the reigning GCT champion having won the 2011 GCT title last year. She takes home €148,500 for her first place effort yesterday.

An amazing course was designed by Italy’s Uliano Vezzani which saw 42 starters in the first round. The top 18 riders continued to round two and seven of those managed to jump clear and make it through to the jump-off. Of those seven pairs, five jumped clear making it a very exciting jump-off.

Edwina Tops-Alexander was first to go in the jump-off and admitted that she thought her time was not fast enough. The pair stopped the clock at 40.99 seconds.
Marco Kutscher (GER) was second with a surprisingly quick Cornet Obolensky in a time of 41.24, while Switzerland’s Pius Schwizer finished third and hot on the heels of Kutscher with a time of  41.32 seconds with the talented Verdi III.

Full results for the Global Champions Tour Doha CSI5* Grand Prix

Next Events for 2012 GCT

VALENCIA ESP 4 – 6 MAY
HAMBURG GER 16 – 20 MAY
WIESBADEN GER 25 – 28 MAY
CANNES FRA 14 – 16 JUNE
MONACO MON 28 - 30 JUNE
ESTORIL POR 13 – 14 JULY
CHANTILLY FRA 20 – 22 JULY
VALKENSWAARD NED 17 – 19 AUGUST
LAUSANNE SUI 14 – 16 SEPTEMBER
WIEN AUT 21 – 23 SEPTEMBER
SHANGHAI CHI 4 – 6 OCTOBER
ABU DHABI UAE 22 – 24 NOVEMBER