With an enthusiastic crowd in attendance at HITS Desert Horse Park, Karl Cook and Basimodo won Saturday's $75,000 Sunshine Series Grand Prix. Suspense grew amongst spectators as four entered the jump off, but Cook was confident in his partner, knowing the best is yet to come.
"I loved how Basimodo rode tonight. He has a lot of promise ahead of him," said Cook, a Woodside, California native. "He's pretty impressive for an 8-year-old."
"The course was big enough and tough enough but certainly ride-able," Cook continued. "Jump Four was the tough one - a big vertical liverpool riding straight into the jumbo screen took all of us a little by surprise."
Ken Krome, the course designer seemed equally as pleased with his course that yielded 4 clear rounds out of 28 starters. "I felt it was quite a good class. Of course a designer gets a little worried that there might be too many or too few for a jump-off but this class was perfect in that aspect," said Krome. "The course had everything - a narrow jump, a wall, and then the triple. It was an equal test for everyone and a nice lead into next week's World Cup Qualifier class."
All four riders in the jump-off were clean, with Cook taking advantage of his last-to-go spot. Rich Fellers of Wilsonville, Oregon, led off the timed round, piloting HTH Crazy for Crown to 40.79 seconds. With a time of 41.21 seconds, Jill Blunt and Udam of Lake Stevens, Washington, took third while Liubov Kochetova of Wellington, Florida, rode to fourth aboard Urus 2 with a time of 41.66 seconds.
