Thermal, Calif.—Feb. 7  

There’s no doubt that Week 3 of the HITS Thermal Desert Circuit belonged to Chris Pratt. He and Edesa’s Basantos, put in lightning fast clear rounds to take the blue in the $350,000 HITS Thermal Grand Prix.

“He’s a special horse and he’s very sensitive,” said Pratt of the 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding. “He’s got a lot of blood; he’s very careful. He’s a horse I really have to remind myself to sit still with and not move around too much. He’ll really react to the rider.”

Watch Pratt and Edesa’s Basantos’ jump-off round…

The first round 13-obstacle course designed by Bernardo Costa Cabral of Portugal featured three tricky combinations and several tight rollbacks, providing ample challenge for the 31 horse and rider combinations.  Ultimately, 11 pairs went clean in the first round to make it to the eight-fence jump-off.

The jump-off did not disappoint. First back to the ring was Paul Rohrbach on Camerino, who had a rub on the second part of the combination to finish with 4 faults. Then Karl Cook put in the first clear jump off round aboard Basimodo.

Tiffany Sullivan and her mount Christian Grey had an unfortunate rail down for 4 faults. Fourth to go was William Simpson, who blazed around the course on E-Unanime De La Haie, going clear and 9/10 of a second faster than Karl Cook.

As the jump-off continued, five more top riders skillfully piloted their mounts to clear rounds but none could beat Simpson’s time, including Nayel Nassar, Jill Henselwood, Enrique Gonzalez, Mandy Porter, and Tamie Phillips.

Last to ride was Chris Pratt, and the order of go may have worked in his favor. “I got to watch Will [Simpson] go, I thought he was brilliant as always,” said Pratt. “But I knew I could do one less stride in the first line. He did nine strides and I was able to do eight strides. That’s what made the difference, I think.” Pratt and Basantos crossed the finish line almost a full second faster than Simpson to steal the win.

The pair had also earned third place in the $100,000 Purina Nutrition Grand Prix on Friday.

Pratt—who rides for Canada—was quick to point out that Basantos, unfortunately, isn’t a permanent part of his string. “He’s owned by a gentleman named Eddy Sepul. I’m just borrowing him, and I have to give him back to Eddy. Eddy is a super rider, an amateur who shows at the grand prix level himself, but he’s been busy building a new stable in Rancho Santa Fe. I’ve taken over his horses to keep them fit and keep them going for him.”

Luckily, Basantos is not the only star in Pratt’s stable. On Wednesday, Pratt was the winner of $50,000 Brook Ledge Welcome Stake aboard Concorde, a 9-year old chestnut Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by The Epic Group LLC. And during Week 2 of the circuit, Pratt won the $25,000 SmartPak Grand Prix aboard Cruise, a 16-year old Dutch Warmblood gelding owned by Indigo Farms, LLC.

Los Angeles-based Pratt is originally from Canada and has numerous grand prix wins under his belt. He has represented Canada in Nations Cups and at the 2006 World Equestrian Games (Germany), and he hopes to get back on the Canadian team in the future.

He moved to California in 2007. “I had a large business and I was teaching and training, which I really enjoyed, but I lost my focus with the grand prix ring,” he explained. “We made a big change about six months ago and really turned everything towards the top of the sport. I’ve got the nicest group of horses now that I’ve had since I left Canada.”

Pratt will be in Thermal for the duration of the circuit, and hopes to show Basantos again after the gelding has taken a couple weeks off. “We’ll do one, maybe two weeks [with Basantos] the second half of the circuit, then we’ll look forward to a successful summer.”

There will be no break for Pratt, however, with several horses at the top of their game. “We’ll keep driving forward. My main focus is the sport and getting back on the Canadian team and getting some international events in,” said Pratt. “We just keep looking forward to bigger and better things.”