Piergiorgio Bucci Wins the Rolex Grand Prix Roma and Makes a Childhood Dream Come True
There is a story Piergiorgio Bucci told at his post-competition press conference on Sunday that explains, better than any result sheet could, what winning the Rolex Gran Premio Roma means to an Italian rider.
Courtesy Press Office Piazza di Siena
He came to Piazza di Siena as a child. He watched the horses jump for the first time and understood, in that particular irreversible way that sport sometimes works on young people, that this was what he wanted to do with his life. He promised himself he would come back and compete here one day. On Sunday afternoon, in the centenary edition of the CSIO di Roma, he won it.
He explained:
Rome is the most important victory of my career, absolutely. It’s the Grand Prix that every rider in the world wants to win, especially us Italians. I feel very privileged and proud — this is absolutely my greatest dream coming true.”
Then, with the kind of self-awareness that only arrives after a few decades in the sport, he added:
I’m a lucky man.”
The round that settled it
Bucci and Pallieter vd N.Ranch, an eleven-year-old grey stallion, were the only combination to achieve a double clear in the entire competition, finishing in 42″01. In a Grand Prix at this level, on a course designed to find faults, that is not a statistic you ignore. It is a statement.
The course itself carried the weight of the occasion. Chef de piste Uliano Vezzani and his team built three brand-new obstacles for the centenary edition, each inspired by a Roman monument restored over the years by Sport e Salute: the Tempietto di Diana, the Casino dell’Orologio, and the Fontana dei Cavalli Marini. The field at Piazza di Siena was effectively jumping through the city’s own history.
Germany’s Jörne Sprehe on Toys finished second, her compatriot Richard Vogel, currently ranked third in the world, who had helped push Mexico to a jump-off in Thursday’s Nations Cup, taking third on Cloudio.
Piergiorgio Bucci riding Pallieter vd N.Ranch clears the vertical fence inspired by the Tempietto di Diana
Courtesy of the Press Office of Piazza di Siena
A grey stallion, a Grand Prix winner
The full context of Sunday’s win deserves a moment. Bucci’s other top horse, Hantano, missed the entire week at Villa Borghese. After competing at the Grand Prix in Aachen the previous Sunday, the horse developed a slight fever, nothing serious, but enough to prompt the caution that good horsemanship demands at this level. Hantano had already been rested for Thursday’s Nations Cup, where Giacomo Casadei stepped in on Marbella du Chabli.
Bucci turned to Pallieter vd N.Ranch and the eleven-year-old grey delivered exactly what was needed. A horse and rider combination with genuine international pedigree, and on Sunday at Piazza di Siena they produced the round of the day. The only double clear in the field. That is not luck. That is a partnership that knows what it is doing.
Italy back on top, seven years on
The last Italian to win the Gran Premio Roma was Lorenzo De Luca, in 2018. Seven years is a long time in show jumping, a sport where the margins are measured in tenths of seconds and centimetres of rail, and where the home crowd at Piazza di Siena has been waiting with considerable patience.
Bucci, born in L’Aquila in 1975, has been in the form of his career over the past fifteen months or so — a rider who has reached that rare plateau where experience and physical condition and horse align in a way that doesn’t happen for everyone and doesn’t last forever. On Sunday he made the most of it, in front of the Rome crowd that had been cheering him on all afternoon, at a ceremony attended by what he described, with evident emotion, as “all the most important figures in our sport, the mayor…”
He trailed off slightly, overwhelmed. Which felt entirely appropriate.
What the centenary edition deserved
This has been an unusual and rather beautiful week at Villa Borghese. An opera concert opened proceedings on Wednesday evening. The first Arena Polo European Championship in history ran simultaneously at the Galoppatoio. Mexico ended a 78-year wait to win the Nations Cup on Friday. Saturday belonged to the Six Barriers, where Giacomo Bassi and Milles triumphed, soaring to 2 metres. And on Sunday, an Italian rider stood on the top step of the Rolex Gran Premio Roma podium for the first time since 2018, on Pallieter vd N.Ranch, the grey stallion who proved, once again, what they are capable of together, in the hundredth year of the competition.
The numbers reflect that success. A total of 77,000 spectators filled the stands at Villa Borghese for an event that remains entirely free to attend — an increase of 24.2% compared to 2025. According to a KPMG study, the economic impact generated by the event, which celebrated its centenary this year, reached €33.73 million, marking a 26.6% increase on the €26.67 million recorded last year. Media coverage was equally impressive, with 23 hours of live broadcast on Rai and a total of 30 hours of programming, while the official social media channels surpassed 6.3 million views, up 57.5% on 2025.
But numbers alone do not quite capture what this week meant.
Bucci was joking when he said at the press conference that he and the organisers had “agreed” he would win in the centenary year, that it had all been arranged. But the best sporting moments always feel a little like that afterwards. Inevitable, in retrospect. Earned.
The 93rd edition of the CSIO di Roma Piazza di Siena – Master d’Inzeo concluded on Sunday 31 May 2026 at Villa Borghese, Rome.
Feature Image: Mezzelani GMT – Sport e Salute
