Cook wins $50K Fisker GP

By Whitney Campbell November 18, 2012

Karl Cook and Jonkheer Z won the $50,000 Fisker Automotive CSI-W Grand Prix, topping a field of 35 international riders Nov. 17 in Las Vegas. The evening kicked off with an elaborate fire show, and the Redwood City-based rider took the theme to heart, turning up the heat with a second place ride on another of his stallions, ASB Conquistador.

Riding for Great Britain, Helen McNaught and Caballo were among only five riders to make the jump-off in the 1.60m test, and came in third.

The class was the pinnacle of the Las Vegas National horse show, which ran Nov. 14-17 at the South Point Equestrian Center and Hotel.

German course designer, Olaf Petersen Jr. set a tough track for this World Cup Qualifying class. From an early stage, many of the young stars proved they were ready to raise their game, leaping to the head of the class.

Petersen’s course rode much more intricately than many anticipated. “After the course walk, the majority of the riders told me it was an easy course,” Petersen said. “I built a technical track and I think they noticed that once they rode it.” By the end of the night, five were eliminated or retired.

A tough time allowed over the large course caught up with the first five rounds, resulting in numerous time faults. After an adjustment to 75 seconds, the competition’s intensity stepped up another notch. The design included 16 efforts with an assortment of a tall vertical wall to a wide triple bar spread. Many riders found themselves questioning their game plan when they began to approach the oxer-vertical-oxer combination. The vertical element was the unfortunate rail down for majority of the four faulters due to riders moving up on the oxer and coming in too quick to clear the vertical.

Coming off his win in the $30,000 EQU Lifestyle Speed Classic on Friday night, the 21-year-old Cook (USA) posted the first clear round of the evening on ASB Conquistador, in a quick 73.42 seconds. Two rounds later, McNaught and her 17-year-old Caballo were able to put up a similarly dazzling performance in 74.02 seconds.

Stanford undergrad Saer Coutler, 20,  guided Graciella 50 to a fault-free 69.53 second round, building on the winning ride the duo had two nights before in the $32,000 Markel Insurance Grand Prix. Tonight they settled for fourth.

Fifteen rounds and several four-faulters later, nineteen-year-old Lucy Davis (USA) and her rambunctious gelding, Nemo 119 were able to join the three qualifiers in a clean 71.14 seconds. Rounding out the field was 21-year-old Cook on his second mount, Jonkheer Z, in 72.28.

The jump-off course was long and flowing, demanding the riders cut corners, angle jumps and gallop between obstacles if they wanted to shave time between fences. The contenders got into trouble when they approached jumps at angles so sharp the horses could not adequately judge their distance, resulting in some faults and refusals.

Cook returned on Conquistador to try and put up an unbeatable time. With an unfortunate rail, Cook put the pedal on the floor and charged to the final oxer, stopping the clock in a  rather astonishing  44.46 seconds.

McNaught and Caballo were in it to win it, but met a likewise unlucky fate, toppling a rail, and breaking the beam at 45.93.

Coulter came out of the first round with the fastest time. Attempting to cover ground between jumps she pushed her horse to the max, but toppled two rails in her 46.14 second-tour.

Nemo 119 treated the crowd (and rider Davis!) to his usual pre-course wild west show, bucking and kicking around the ring before getting down to business. Once their countdown clock started, the duo was in sync, and well on their way to a winning round until an attempt to take an oxer at an angle prompted a refusal. The pair would end up with four faults and nine time faults in 60.53 seconds, settling for fifth.

Cook came into the jump off as the final round knowing that he needed to simply post a fault free effort to seal the deal and walk away with both 1st and 2nd place. With a few rocky rubs and nerve wracking approaches, Cook was able to safely guide Jonhkeer Z to the only double clear round of the night, securing the top two spots on the leaderboard.

“I’m lucky I guess,” Cook smiled, tipping his helmet to trainers Butch and Lu Thomas. “I have a great trainer, a great program and great horses. I’ll admit I too thought the course walked easy, but it rode much harder. Overall, after last night and tonight, I couldn’t be happier.” Within a two day span, Cook produced four top placing results aboard four remarkable horses owned by Signe Ostby. Congratulations to the team for their amazing performance this week in Las Vegas.

Leading up to the Grand Prix was the $10,000 Royal Champion Classic. A unique format, where the top ten scoring horses from the first round return for a second round with a clean slate to compete for the win. Eduardo Menzes (BRA) came back in the jump-off with two mounts, Quintol Mercedes Benz and Audi’s Reflection, to clean up with a 1st and 4th place finish.

The evening concluded with the drawing of the public raffle where over 30 fabulous prizes were up for grabs. Spectators, exhibitors and fans lined up around the corner of the main entrance for a chance to meet the evening’s competitors as well as course designer Olaf Petersen Jr., reigning World Cup Champion and Olympian Rich Fellers, and the newly knighted U.S Show Jumping coach, Robert Ridland.

The Las Vegas National show wraps with the North American League West Coast Finals on Sunday.

For more information on the Las Vegas National Horse Show, please visit the Blenheim EquiSports website, www.showpark.com.  For complete results from this class, click here.

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