While Jayden Brown became the 2025 Australian Grand Prix Champion in Sydney last weekend on 16 - 19 October 2025, the allocation of the title in 2024 still lies under dispute after a year-long legal battle.
Points or Percentage Average?
Last year Mary Hanna received the title after having ridden the Grand Prix and Special on Ivanhoe, while David McKinnon and Viv Lipschut's Estupendo rode the Grand Prix and Freestyle.
According to Lipschut, format at entry read that the Grand champion award would be determined by the average of a horse and rider’s best two scores in the grand prix and either of the other two top-level classes (Special OR Kur). McKinnon had an average of 72.9% while Hanna and Ivanhoe had an average of 71.8%.
Lipschut alleges that the method of determining the 2024 Australian Grand Prix Champion was changed at the last minute from a percentage average to a point system, announced in the show booklet.
Complaint Rejected
Lipschut lodged a complaint with Equestrian Australia but it was denied. EA chair Christie Freeman and EA’s Integrity Department (Paul Williams) rejected her complaint. Lipschut was told she missed the time window for her protest (within 30 minutes of the completion of the class) and she could not be heard because she was not the horse’s rider. Complaints could only be made “by human participants directly involved in or adversely affected”.
Both Freeman and Williams are no longer working for EA in their roles at this point in time.
State body Equestrian NSW endorsed Lipshut’s bid to have the scoring controversy heard by the National Sports Tribunal, the independent sports umpire established by the federal government in 2020. However, Equestrian Australia has refused to refer the matter to the tribunal, which requires the agreement of both parties to accept such a case under the horse sport’s regulations.
Press Attention
Australia's two performance sport oriented equestrian magazines, Equestrian Life and The Horse Magazine, chose not to report on the dispute. Last week major mainstream newspaper Sydney Morning Herald ran an article about her fight titled "Scoring Feud, Intimidation Claim Engulfs Olympics' most expensive sport."
"They changed the rules after the entries had closed and they didn’t tell anyone," Lipschut told the Sydney Morning Herald, adding that she was bullied and intimidated by EA to drop the matter. "I’m 72. This was the reason I got up in the morning. I had the best horse in Australia and they’ve taken that away.”
McKinnon and Estupendo last competed at the Pacific League Finals in Werribee in December 2024. Estupendo has been retired from sport after he tore a ligament in an accident.
Lipschut continues to legal fight to claim the title she is believes should be Estupendo's.
Related Links
Wilma Wernsen's Estupendo Sold to Australia
Dalmau, Parker and Hanna Win the 2024 Australian Grand Prix Champion's Titles