Showjumper Edwina Tops-Alexander on how she made it from suburban Sydney pony club to world-famous equestrian and businesswoman.
It’s no stretch to say former Sydneysider and Avondale Pony Club girl turned global showjumping sensation Edwina Tops-Alexander has serious superpowers.
For the non-equestrian reader unfamiliar with the elite world of international showjumping – populated by the likes of Grace Kelly’s granddaughter Charlotte Casiraghi, Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Julia, and Bill and Melinda Gates’ daughter Jennifer – let’s just say that once on horseback, Tops-Alexander is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Just look at the photos.
When I demand clarification, she requests a cupcake: “You can’t get good cupcakes where I live. Good pastries yes, but not cupcakes.”She lives in Monaco with her husband, Jan Tops, and their five-year-old daughter, Chloe. The trio also spends much of their time at the couple’s luxurious competition stable and arena complex, Stal Tops, with 500 horse boxes. It’s where Tops-Alexander trains, and is in Valkenswaard in southern Netherlands, the world’s epicentre for showjumping.
Tops-Alexander can’t find good cupcakes in Europe, so they rate high on her culinary wish list while in Australia.Tops-Alexander’s eyes open wide, as do those of Ruby, the delightful horse-mad daughter of her friends who own this place.! I haven’t seen a lamington for almost 25 years,” she exclaims.
“I was determined, and I pushed myself, but I also got lucky in that I sold a horse called Jozita to America for €700,000 when I was 26 in 2000.” She’d purchased the horse for less than a quarter of that sum, then brought it on to grand prix level. “It was pre-internet back then,” she says, politely commending the baguette as delicious. “In Australia, I’d buy the oddmagazine from the UK, and read it cover to cover, but I basically had no idea what I was up against in Europe until I arrived.”“Everything was different in terms of how many horses you needed, what height you needed to be jumping – it was a system of training that hadn’t yet arrived in Australia.
Their first date was at Restaurant Theunissen, a five-minute drive from Tops’ stables in Valkenswaard. “We went out that night because it was a business/dinner situation sort of conversation we needed to have, then it turned into more of a ‘situation’ situation,” she laughs. The pair married in a lavish ceremony in Monaco in 2011, and had Chloe in 2017. “We still go to that restaurant all the time – like once a week,” she says. “It’s our favourite local.
Around the same time, Tops had struck gold with a business idea, creating the Global Champions Tour, with Longines as the headline sponsor, plus private investors. The basic premise was to offer unrivalled prize money to attract the best riders to events staged in spectacular locations, such as on Miami Beach and in the Stadio dei Marmi, just outside Rome, surrounded by 59 classical marble statues.
After Pialotta, more good horses came her way, including her ultimate “heart horse”, the 15.2-hand high chestnut French-bred gelding Itot du Chateau, Toti for short. “Probably only 70 per cent of the rounds I do are what I planned; a lot of my job is about making split-second decisions that are right for the moment.”
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