One of the world’s fastest show jumpers blended talents with her speed-loving rider to take the $355,000 Grand Prix of Rotterdam Sunday in an eight-horse jump-off.
Caracole de la Roque and Karl Cook did what they do best when the clock is ticking and the pressure is on, handling a clever course in a wicked 37.17 seconds. France’s Nina Mallevaey was closest in 38.09 on Dynastie de Beaufort to finish as runner-up. It was a trio of mares at the top of the standings, as Donald Whitaker of Great Britain (nephew of John and Michael Whitaker) wound up third on Millfield Colette (38.78).
Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque on their way to victory in Rotterdam. (Tiffany van Halle/USA Jumping photo)
Noting “Nina is riding at a very high level,” Karl observed that her clear round consistency “must be something off the charts. She’s a very quick rider.”
However, while discussing what gave him the win, he noted, “the biggest thing, really, is my horse is faster. That doesn’t mean my horse is better than Nina’s; she carries herself over the ground faster. We both did six strides to the second-to-last, but if you see how quickly Caracole turned (there), compared to Nina’s horse, we turned significantly faster and that obviously saved a bunch of time. Nina gave it everything she had, which is what you should do.” But “Caracole is just amazingly fast.”
Karl’s victory was the first for an American in the Dutch grand prix since 2015, when Lucy Davis won with Barron. Although he had the disadvantage of being second to go in the tie-breaker, Karl’s time pushed those coming behind him, with four of them making mistakes, while the other three couldn’t get into the 37-second neighborhood.
In the first round, a vertical-vertical-oxer triple combination four strides from a delicate plank that was the final fence showcased the thought process of the course design team led by Belgium’s Bart Vonck, and it emerged as a trouble spot. The USA’s Aaron Vale on Styles was two jumps away from a clean round when he toppled the back rail of the triple’s C element to end in thirteenth place.
As for the other U.S. riders, Laura Kraut, who won the class in 2007, had a rail with her Olympic mount Baloutinue at the sixth of 14 fences and did not make the tiebreaker. She finished sixteenth. Her teammate, Alessandra Volpi, logged 12 penalties with Haya Loma N and wound up thirty-ninth.
There were problems all around the route; even the first fence, an innocent-looking vertical, started several riders off on the wrong foot with a knockdown. They included Olympic individual gold medalist Christian Kukuk of Germany aboard Just Be Gentle, the mare on whom he won the grand prix at the Longines League of Nations in Ocala three months ago.
Karl’s win helped make up for a fifth-place U.S. team finish in Friday’s Longines FEI League of Nations, where he had the drop score of 8 penalties in the first round and did not ride in the second. But he has become a master of overcoming setbacks by utilizing determination and skill, as well as taking an astute analytical look at a situation when it goes wrong.
Discussing his performance in the League of Nations, Karl said, “My first rail (that was down) I overdid the line, I was expected it to be shorter than it ended up being, so the line got flat and we had kind of a long, withers-down jump.
“After that, the oxer, we were looking off to our right; normally she drives to the fences, that’s one of her great qualities. But because I let her be too focused to the right, she didn’t really know there was a fence coming, so the distance kept getting longer and I didn’t react soon enough because normally when she sees it, she takes me to it. and we jump and it’s fine. I needed to put my leg on earlier than I did. That was a bummer.”
On the other hand, what happened with his League round gave him even more incentive to produce a winning trip in the grand prix.
“You’ve got to fix your errors,” he explained.
“We’re ecstatic about the grand prix and it shows a lot of really good things. At the same time, it shows we could come back from a not so good (League of) Nations cup. But us winning today doesn’t negate the fact that we were the drop score in the nations cup. I still need to go back home and do a bunch of work and improve on that.”
But as for Caracole, Karl emphasized, “She was amazing today.”
U.S. Coach Robert Ridland offered the same comment about the mare’s pilot.
“Karl rode amazing today, both rounds. It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that,” he said.
Robert was pleased with how his team did overall at the Dutch show, despite the fifth place finish in the League competition, because team members had clear rounds and good placings in other classes as well.
“Karl just put the icing on the cake today,” he pointed out, callling Karl’s first round in the grand prix “so solid,” noting “the mare jumped great and he rode phenomenally.”
Robert told Karl, “for me, your first round in the grand prix was the best round you and Caracole have done since Paris” (the 2024 Olympics).
With the fifth-place League finish, the U.S. seems like a lock to make the finals in Barcelona this fall, according to Robert, unless the last qualifier is a total disaster.
“We solidified our situation this year. We wanted to leave here knowing that we don’t have to change course going into St. Tropez,” said Robert, referring to the final leg of the League of Nations in September. The U.S. is tied for a relatively comfy fourth place in the overall League standings.
And that’s all good.
“It’s a hard thing to plan later in the season when you have so many big events in North America (during the fall). We have a much harder problem than the Europeans do getting teams to Barcelona at that time of year,” Robert explained.
“All four riders were great this week,” he said of his squad.
Karl’s win was another major to match his 2024 victory in the Rome grand prix that got him selected for the Olympics, where he was on the silver medal team. He isn’t on the U.S. team for Aachen next month, but is planning on going to Falsterbo, Sweden, later this summer. Also on the agenda is a hope he can be part of the team for that last League of Nations leg at St. Tropez, followed by the League’s Barcelona final.
While the Europeans have their show jumping championship this summer in Spain, it’s an off-year for championships in which U.S. riders participate. Karl sees that as an opportunity.
“This year is about doing really good homework and improving things that, when you’re in the championship sprint, you don’t have that much time to fix. You have to keep your head down and keep going.”
It’s also an opportunity to give Caracole some time off during the year and bring along other horses to support her.
Caracole can be dynamite, but she’s an incredible talent that Karl respects and loves, as evidenced by they way he likes to give her a quick kiss on the neck before he starts his rounds, as he did Sunday afternoon.
Karl always tries for that kiss, but he can do it only “If she lets me,” he noted fondly.
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