St. Tropez Pirates win Global Champions League in Mexico, Kukuk takes individual title
St. Tropez Pirates clear to board in Mexico, Kukuk victorious
from Dominique Wehrmann 
Kaitlin Campbell and Karius secured victory for the St. Tropez Pirates in the Global Champions League leg in Mexico. Photo: GCL/Ljuba Buzzola Freshly returned from the World Cup final in Fort Worth, where she advanced to the final with Castlefield Cornelious, things continued in Mexico with a Global Champions League stage win for 34-year-old US rider Caitlin Campbell. This time she was in the saddle on the eleven-year-old KWPN gelding Karius by Van Gogh and laid the foundations for victory alongside Italian rider Piergiorgio Bucci with two clear rounds. The latter had saddled the Cornet Obolensky son Pallieter, who had a knockdown in round one over 1.60 meters, but then also jumped clear. Their combined time of 147.23 seconds was enough to keep the Istanbul Warriors at bay.
This quartet also had four penalty points in the end, but was slower at 148.99 seconds. They were ridden by Simon Delstre (FRA) on the ten-year-old Diamant de Semilly son Golden Boy and Abdel Said (BEL) in the saddle on Bonne Amie, with whom he won the Super Grand Prix in Prague last year. The mare did not touch a pole yesterday either. Golden Boy dropped one in the second round.
It was also the time of 149.41 seconds that decided that the Basel Cosmopolitans with Olivier Philippaerts on Hipster and Miro and Zascha Nygaard (DEN) in the saddle on Charino PS and Philipp Stühlmeyer’s former top horse Drako de Maugre had to make do with third place. Drako picked up a pole in the second round.
Riesenbeck International on five
Riesenbeck International did well in fifth place. In the first round, Beerbaum stable rider Ciaran Nallon, the team’s U25 rider, dropped two poles with the ten-year-old Casallco daughter Casalla Blue PS. However, they jumped clear in the second round. And Christian Kukuk’s Checker was once again on top form with two clear rounds.
The Olympic champions from Paris were thus fourth in the individual classification of the first round. The Miami winners Katrin Eckermann and Dialou Blue PS also stayed clear and finished sixth.
In the second round no one was as fast as Checker – victory with the only ride under 70 seconds.
You can find all the results here.
