Photos and Story by Alan Fabricant
The final “Saturday Night Lights” event of the 2025 winter season was held on March 29th.
The field had forty pairs of riders and horses from 14 countries, that included six of the world’s top 10 ranked riders entered into this event.
All had hopes and dreams of going home with the Blue Ribbon and the first-place prize worth $247,500 of the total purse of $750,000.
A standing room only crowd of over 10,000 under clouds and potential rain were in attendance.
Fortunately, no rain came and the event went off as scheduled with no outside interference.
Of the forty that went through the first round, only eight went clear, no knockdowns or time faults, to go into the jump-off to determine the final standings.
For the second year in a row, Christian Kukuk of Germany riding Checker 47 captured first place and the biggest grand prize of $247,000.
In addition to these victories, he is the current gold medalist in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
However, the highlight of the day came hours earlier when Kukuk and his wife Veronica welcomed their first-born child Lila.
He said during an interview “This day is always going to be very special for her birthday. I am the happiest man on the planet tonight.”
From the USA, Laura Kraut aboard Bisquetta came in a close second to earn $150,000.
Ashlee Bond of Israel teamed with Donatello 141 to finish third and a check for $112,500.
The top 12 finishers received prize money.
