Italy’s Piergiorgio Bucci won the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de la Baule just two weeks after his first Rolex Grand Prix victory on home soil at Rome’s Piazza di Siena.The competition was determined after 45 starters were thinned down to just seven for the jump-off. Only those who could deliver a clear in round one would return, and obtaining that clear was no easy task.Paris Olympics course designer Gregory Bodo had produced a 1.60m track that increased in intensity in its second half, and included both demanding technical questions and big, bold jumping efforts.Among the tricks was a fiendishly tricky turn from fence nine, a wide parallel bar, or oxer, to an upright wall at 10, which forced riders to step the pace up and then immediately rebalance and pull it back so as not to kick a brick out of the wall. Those falling bricks eliminated 11 of the starters.Also enormously influential was the treble combination at 11ABC, which required a fast-paced, high-energy approach to clear the spread of the first of three fences — but then featured a shorter-than-normal distance between the second and third elements, requiring a midair adjustment of pace with just milliseconds in which to do so.When the class moved into the jump-off, the shortened and intensified track had done away with the first part of the treble, leaving 11B and 11C to act as a double combination — but that unusually tight distance remained unchanged. The pair of fences now sat two obstacles from home, the point in a jump-off at which a rider is most tempted to take risks in pursuit of the clock.Piergiorgio Bucci, at 50 years old, is in the midst of the best season of his nearly 30-year career. (Rolex Series)Switzerland’s Martin Fuchs was first to go in the jump-off, riding Conner Jei — the most experienced partnership in the competition, with 16 previous jump-off rounds, 12 of them fault-free, under their belts.Being first to go is a tricky draw. Without valuable intel from watching other rider’s shortcuts, the only remaining strategy is pure speed. Fuchs and Connor Jei delivered that, posting a clear round in a blazing time of 41.03. Fuchs trusted in his horse’s wealth of experience and thrusted into the fences, cutting a razor-sharp turn into the wide oxer at fence four that demonstrated the extent of the horse’s enormous ability to propel himself over a 1.60m obstacle.Each of the first five riders after Fuchs knocked at least one rail after a front-loading of pace, until just Bucci remained in the hunt.Strategy plays a huge part in a jump-off but there is benefit to having confidence, too — and that’s something that Bucci has in spades at the moment thanks to two CSI5* Grand Prix victories in as many months. Both those wins, at the Grand Prix of Mexico in April and the Rolex Grand Prix at Piazza di Siena last month, came with the in-form Pallieter vd N. Ranch. On Sunday, he rode the 14-year-old Hantano.Piergiorgio Bucci wins the Rolex Grand Prix Ville de la Baule just two weeks after his first Rolex Grand Prix victory at Rome’s Piazza di Siena. (Rolex Series)Hantano didn’t even feature in statistics company EquiRatings’ pre-class line-up of ones-to-watch, and perhaps unsurprisingly so: of the seven horses in the second round, his jump-off clear rate was by far the lowest at 33 percent. He’d managed a clear round just once previously, at Madrid in 2024 when winning the CSIO5* Grand Prix.“It’s been a long time since we won a Grand Prix — I haven’t managed to repeat it with him, and it’s always been because of my mistakes,” Bucci told ClipMyHorse.TV.It was surprising to see Bucci lean forward on landing from fence one, urging Hantano into a galloping stride — but the gelding surged forward, to meet the second fence on eight, one less than Fuchs had found.That he had to stretch to make the distance of the fence only seemed to further light a fire in Hantano, and they found an easy six strides to fence three before making a wider turn to fence four, a savvy move that looked marginally slower than the tight rollback others had made here but actually put them more squarely in the centre of the fence, all but guaranteeing them a clear effort over it.They were three one-hundredths of a second up on the clock as they approached the double. As they landed from it, they were eight one-hundredths down on Fuchs’s time. As Bucci turned into the final line, he allowed Hantano to set a serious pace to the last and leave the ground half a stride early. They broke the beams on the timer at 40.61.Less than half a second decided the competition, but it was calm calculation that won it.“Starting last in the jump-off was definitely an advantage because I could see what everyone else had done, especially Martin’s round,” Bucci said. “That helped me a lot. I came in determined to win, and the left turn [to the final line] suited my horse perfectly so I decided to go for it.”At 50 years old, Bucci is in the midst of the best season of his nearly 30-year career.“I’m getting a bit older now, and now that it’s almost time to stop, I’m starting to understand how to ride well,” said Bucci.“The people behind me are amazing. The owners of these two horses are so behind me, even when I’m not so good. I’ve never had horses like this before, that are so competitive and amazing, but my team at home I can never stop thanking, too.”The Rolex Series now moves for the first time to the south of Sweden, where the Falsterbo Horse Show will begin on July 12.“I won’t be going to Falsterbo, so I’ll leave that opportunity to the others. But as they say, never say never,” said Bucci.Jun 14, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms