For any other rider, winning a major five-star grand prix would be the highlight of their day—of their month even. But Christian Kukuk’s victory in tonight’s $750,000 Rolex US Equestrian Open Grand Prix CSI5* paled in comparison to his morning, when his partner Veronica Tracy gave birth to their first child, a daughter they named Lila.
“The due day was actually next week, next Saturday, and we said in the beginning, ‘Oh, perfect. It’s right after [Week 12 of the Winter Equestrian Festival]. Could not be better,’ ” said the 35-year-old German rider. “And then the closer we got, the more we could see coming that she could also come a little bit early. And I was honestly a bit hoping she at least would wait until Sunday. But for sure, she did not, and she decided to come this morning. So we drove to the hospital last night.
“I have to be honest, I was a little bit lucky, because I was pushing Veronica to wait as long as possible at home, not to go too early in the hospital and spend too much time there before the grand prix,” he continued. “But then at one point, she said, ‘I think we have to go now, actually.’ So we went, and I still was quite relaxed, and then when we went to the room and they checked her, they suddenly got really stressed and said, well, we’re already at 8 centimeters, we really have to hurry up here. I got a little stressed for a moment because I thought, ‘[expletive] if the baby comes now in the next 10 minutes without the doctor, because of me, I’m in trouble!’ But at least she waited another hour, and yeah, everything went really well. Both are healthy. Veronica is good, the baby is good, and I honestly cannot wait to see them again.”
It made for an “incredible” day for Kukuk, who hours later rode Checker 47 to his second consecutive Rolex Grand Prix victory at WEF in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 10,000 spectators. While last year he was a newbie to the horse show, after winning individual gold at the Paris Olympic Games he spent the season here this year, winning a four-star grand prix earlier in January with “Checker,” a 15-year-old German-bred Westphalian gelding (Comme Il Faut 5—Pamina, Come On). He came into the final week of WEF on a hot streak, having just ridden Just Be Gentle to the top of the $350,000 Lugano Grand Prix last week at the World Equestrian Center—Ocala (Florida).
The star-studded field for today’s big class in Wellington saw problems across Guilherme Jorge’s first-round course, with the open water in particular causing multiple faults. Eight combinations advanced to the jump-off. Kukuk and Checker were the penultimate combination and outran previous class leaders Laura Kraut and Bisquetta, who advanced to the short course last year too.
“I definitely left the door open,” said Kraut, who finished second. “I added to the third jump, the oxer, on the rollback and I also added to the double. I should have left one out in both those places and then it would have been hard. Because she’s a very quick horse, but I just, I got a little bit cautious there, and I knew when I came out, I knew he had a very good chance, so it wasn’t a surprise.”
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Watch Kukuk’s winning jump-off round, courtesy of ShowGroundsLive.com:
The leadoff rider in the jump-off, Ashlee Bond, finished third with her veteran partner Donatello 141, who was recovering from a throat infection caused by allergies.
“This is going on our ninth year together, and just to reiterate what Christian said, it’s all about partnership,” said Bond, who pointed out that all three top riders are parents (and Kraut is a grandparent too.)
“The fact that he fought out there for me, jumped double clear and turned himself inside out to have a performance he did tonight just made me really grateful,” she added.” And I don’t take any performance for granted. Aafter the Olympics, I wasn’t sure if we’re going to do this again; he just didn’t feel like he did in Tokyo. And so the fact that I get to be third in the Rolex 1.60-meter class, I just am so grateful.”
Find full results here.
