Karl Cook, a 31-year-old Southern Californian who had not competed at the Hampton Classic before, not only won Friday’s $74,000 Grand Prix Qualifier, which entitled him and his 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare to go last in Sunday’s $410,000 Grand Prix, but won that class too, a very rare feat according to the show’s communications director, Marty Bauman, edging the defending champions, Daniel Bluman and Gemma W, by a fraction of a second in a jump-off.
And that wasn’t all: Because he earned more points during the course of the weeklong show, Cook also won the $30,000 Longines Rider Challenge competition, topping Aaron Vale, who had 300, and Bluman, who finished with 280. Because of that win and his and Kalinka Van’t Zorgvliet’s win in the Grand Prix, he received two Longines watches at the press conference that followed the show’s main event. Moreover, it was Cook’s first grand prix victory in a five-star-rated show.
Nine horse-and-rider combinations out of an initial field of 30 that tested Alan Wade’s 17-effort Grand Prix course qualified because of clear rounds to vie in the pared-down jump-off. In addition to those mentioned above, these included David Blake and Keoki, Katie Dinan and Brego R ‘N B, Mario Deslauriers and Uris De La Roque, Schuyler Riley and Robin De Ponthual, Adrienne Sternlicht and Benny’s Legacy, Mimi Gochman and Celina BH, and Devin Ryan and Eddie Blue.
Dinan and Brego, the second to go, set the standard by going clean in 38.32 seconds, a time that held up until the penultimate contestants, Bluman and Gemma W, sped around the eight-effort jump-off course in 36.930 seconds.
In the wings, Kalinka couldn’t wait to enter the ring on hearing the standing-room-only crowd’s loud clapping for Bluman and Gemma W. (Cook described Kalinka afterward as “a hot horse with lots of energy, which means she can sometimes lose her focus, so I’ve got to walk a fine line with her.”)
“It wasn’t that the clapping had made her nervous,” Cook told an inquirer. “She was saying, ‘Let’s do it!’ She loves it.”
He said he knew that he and Kalinka could beat Bluman and Gemma W’s time as he and she scaled the jump-off’s third jump at an angle, “not straight on,” which shortened their time to the double combination in front the V.I.P. tent from which they continued to go clear on their way to victory in 36.710 seconds.
Cook, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, said he had had “a lot of highs and lows” with his mother’s horse. “She gets a bit wacky at times. . . . She wants it, she tries so hard.”
Among those with questions at the press conference was Cameron Dawson, 11, of Amagansett, who asked if Cook, Bluman, and Dinan harbored any fears when it came to riding. The riders agreed that they worried for the safety of their horses, about whom they spoke affectionately.
Following were some other results during the week:
Cara Dayton of Chesapeake City, Md., and Durrant, a 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, won Sunday’s $25,000 Agneta and Brownlee Currey Jumping Derby.
Vale and Elusive, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, won Saturday’s $74,000 Longines Cup.
Amanda Derbyshire and Wonder If won the $37,000 Wolffer Estate Grand Prix Two-Star Qualifier on Friday.
Kristen Vanderveen and Bull Run’s Prince of Peace won last Thursday’s $37,000 Hampton Classic Speed Stake.
Victoria Heurtematte of Panama, and her 12-year-old Zangersheide mare Scarlett Du Sart Z won the $10,000 Citarella Open Jumper class last Thursday.
Gracie Allen and Jester Van Stal Romaro won the $10,000 1.40-meter Open Jumper Two-Phase on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Christian Coyle and his 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Dekato won the $10,000 1.40-meter Open Jumper class on Tuesday, Aug. 30.
Lila Glenz of Long Beach and Barely There were champions in the leader/sidewalker division for riders with disabilities on Monday, Aug. 29. On the same day, Julia Glenz and Barely There won the beginner independent championship, and Lucian Rodriguez of Hackenstown, N.Y., and Simon Says topped the advanced independent division.
The Kevin Babington Foundation, set up after the popular Irish Olympian was paralyzed from the neck down as the result of a fall at the Classic in 2019, was one of the show’s beneficiaries. Sunday’s nine clear trips in the Grand Prix’s first round resulted in Jessica and Bill Koenigsberg donating $45,000 to it.
“The foundation does so much to help riders who sustain catastrophic spinal injuries -- we are honored to provide opportunities for our community to give back to their fellow equestrians,” Shanette Barth Cohen, the Classic’s executive director, said earlier last month in announcing the Koenigsbergs’ pledge of $5,000 per clear trip in the Grand Prix’s first round.
Babington said he was touched by the Koenigsbergs’ clear-round pledge, adding that he would have to ask the Classic’s course designer, Alan Wade, to “go a little easy on them.”
