Karl Cook is First and Third in the $117,000 Grand Prix in Thermal

Karl Cook and the 11-year-old Selle Francais mare Foxy de la Roque laid down the only double clear jump-off round to win the $117,000 Premier Equestrian FEI CSI3* Grand Prix at Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, California, on Saturday. The Olympian also placed third with another mare, Home-Run, a 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood.

Canadian Tiffany Foster and Battlecry, a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding, rode a faster jump-off round than Cook and Foxy, but a knockdown put them into second place in the 1.50-meter class.

Cook has been partnered with Foxy for less than a year, and says he's been working on building a relationship with her. It's been coming together for them this Desert Circuit, according to a press release from Desert International Horse Park.

“We did the World Cup™ qualifier two weeks ago, and we were double clear and successful. So, we were trying to build on that," Cook said in the release. "I think there were some bits about my first round that weren’t very good, and I needed to fix. I just rushed a bit too much, and I wasn’t patient enough. Thankfully, we were still clear, and I got a chance to practice the jump-offs…and kind of just further refine how it is that we move in a jump-off.”

Balancing patience and a turbo engine

“She requires a very patient ride, which is sort of challenging because she’s a very high RPM type of horse. Normally, when they’re high RPM, you ride them as a high RPM horse, but this, you almost have to ride her opposite and be very patient, very soft, a little bit of a gap," Cook explained. "It’s a very quiet ride, and it’s super easy to just rush each step. We had a few rubs in the first round, and that was because of that. I just wasn’t patient enough in how I was riding.”

In the field of 36 entries, four riders qualified for the jump-off.

There was a 0.28-second difference between third and fourth place.

Top Eight Results

1 Karl Cook (USA) - FOXY DE LA ROQUE - 0/0/39.41

2 Tiffany Foster (Canada) - BATTLECRY - 0/4/38.72

3 Karl Cook (USA) - HOME-RUN - 0/4/41.58

4 Jamie Gornall (Great Britain) - CLEAR HEART - 0/4/41.86

5 Conor Swail (Ireland) - THEO 160 - 1/78.88

6 Lindsay Archer (USA) - QADIM DE REGOR - 1/78.99

7 Zazou Hoffman (USA) - BLOOM DU PLESSIS - 4/74.57

8 Kaitlin Campbell (USA) - COSM HESED - 4/74.65

The article contains quotes from a Desert International Horse Park media release

Photo by High Desert Sport Photo