Hat-trick for Christian Kukuk and Checker 47 between Paris Olympics and Wellington
The Rolex $500,000 Grand Prix at the Winter Equestrian Festival [WEF] 2024, the Paris Olympics and now WEF 2025 Saturday Night Lights $215,000 CSI4* Grand Prix – if you happened to have that hat-trick on a betting slip there would be plenty to celebrate after Germany’s Christian Kukuk and Checker 47 landed last night’s win.
“I’m very happy to be back actually,” Christian said, after he and the 15-year-old Westphalian gelding set the pace in the seven-horse jump-off and held on to their time of 37.35 to win by nearly two seconds.
“I still really remember that night here in March last year,” he said of the $500,000 Grand Prix victory. “It was really one of my best nights I ever had and best wins. So I was very excited to come back to Wellington and now for sure I’m very happy that my horses and especially Checker now, still feel very comfortable and happy here.”
Great Britain’s Ben Maher and Enjeu de Grisien chased Christian to finish runners up in 39.29 seconds. “I could have gone faster,” said Ben. “I did everything I could. The screen is deceiving in the warm-up arena there when we watch. I know that from experience. You watch the other riders go and it’s always faster than what it actually looks like on the screen, so I was aware of that.”
Ben knew he had his work cut out to beat the Olympic individual gold medalist aboard his Olympian mount, and even joked afterwards that, “I’m not so happy he’s here in Wellington, but I’m sure everybody else is.” Ben reflected on his jump off round and the differences in jumping style that made the difference.
“He has a very big stride for a small horse,” he said of the 11-year-old Selle Français gelding. “But it’s a little bit slow motion. When he jumps, he jumps with quite a lot of height and a little bit of a lofty kind of jump. So it was always going to be tough to beat Checker there today. I think the experience of Christian with that horse and the smooth turn back to the Netjets jump there – I would have had to take an unrealistic risk to be able to beat him at the end of the course today.”
France’s Nina Mallevaey leapt from a win in the Under 25 Grand Prix last week to a third-place finish aboard 12-year-old Selle Français mare Dynastie de Beaufour. Nina – who has been helped along by seasoned and world renowned showjumpers, USA’s Laura Kraut and Britain’s Nick Skelton – finished in 39.67.
“I’m really happy. I’m really happy with my horse too. It’s her first time here,” said Nina. “She jumped really well. She had two months of holidays before here, so it’s her first show. She feels amazing. So I’m looking forward to doing a good promotion here during the winter and see how it goes.”
Christian is also settling in for the winter – with nine weeks of competition still remaining at WEF, he came to Wellington in full force.
“I really enjoyed and liked it last year, that experience here. And I told myself I will definitely come back next year,” Christian said. “So I for sure had that kind of in my head. But then during the summer, the fact that my girlfriend kind of lives here in the winter made the decision quite easy for us actually. So I said I will do the whole circuit here. I brought six horses – I nearly brought all my horses here, so I’m happy to be here and I’m excited for the winter. It’s the first time for me to do the whole circuit.”
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