THERMAL, Calif. – With an Olympic silver medal to their names, it may come as no surprise that Karl Cook and Caracole de la Roque made winning the $30,000 FarmVet 1.45m Classic look easy on Thursday, November 6, at Desert International Horse Park.
Cook and the 13-year-old Selle Français mare, owned by Eric Navet and Signe Ostby, topped the 43-horse field with a time of 62.941 seconds. Second place went to Charlie Jones who rode Morning Star Sporthorses, LLC’s Capitale 6 to a time of 63.509 seconds. Rounding out the top three in 64.822 seconds were Katie Laurie and Tulara Zirensky, owned by Carissa McCall.
“It was a really nice track today,” said Cook of the speed course designed by Colm Quinn. “There were nice turns – both tighter and more swooping roll backs to see if people wanted to lean in a little bit. You could leave one out or take a wider track to get a different line, and there were other lines where it was either seven or eight or eight or nine. I think that’s a good thing in a speed class – to give people options. It’s a nice test to give us the option as opposed to dictating it on the course builder’s side.”
Cook took advantage of many of those faster options on his way to the win, as he and Caracole de la Roque are utilizing this week at National Sunshine Series 2 to prepare for upcoming CSI5* competitions.
“My goal was just to have a nice round yesterday, a nice round today,” explained Cook. “We haven’t shown since [the Longines League of Nations Final CSIO5* in Barcelona], so I wanted to get back in the ring and see how we’re feeling.”
Caracole de la Roque is just one of a handful of horses that Cook and the Pomponio Ranch team brought to Thermal, Calif., this week – including a few up-and-coming young horses.
“We have a bunch of younger horses and a couple coming back from injury,” said Cook. “When you’re in Europe, it doesn’t make sense to bring those horses. So, they kind of stay home, and we do the best we can with them. Now, it’s so nice to be able to drive two hours down the road from home and get to show in big arenas with nice courses to kind of bring them along.”
For full results from Thursday’s $30,000 FarmVet 1.45m Classic, visit ShowgroundsLive.com, and to learn more about all competition at Desert International Horse Park, visit deserthorsepark.com.