Saturday saw the final leg of the 2024 Crooks Show Jumping Young Horse Series at Thunderbird Show Park and this week’s winners were as diverse as they are promising.

The Crooks Show Jumping Young Horse Series is designed to encourage the development of young show jumping talent. These classes are one of the season’s special highlights and give breeders, trainers and prospective buyers the opportunity to view the results of our industry’s best breeding programs in a competitive setting.

This week’s winners were no exception. For the victors of the 4- and 5-year-old divisions, winning is a family affair.

Four-year-old creamello mare Guinevere (Gallup x Calidostar), ridden by Kathleen Marie Napadajlo, and 5-year-old grey gelding Top Gun (Gallup x Calido I), saddled by Kassidy Keith, are as local as they come. Both horses were bred by Roy Graham of Innisfail, Alberta and sired by Shauna Cook’s KWPN stallion Gallup, a regular competitor in the tbird Grand Prix Arena.

But the familial connections don’t stop there for these two Canadian Warmbloods. Guinevere is out of the Calido’s Little Secret while Top Gun is out of Bianca I, dams that share Calido 1 in their lineage.

In the 6-year-old division, Sarah Berg (USA) and Diamanto R (Diamant de Semilly x Cassini II) had the fastest time by two and half seconds. It no doubt helps that the grey Holsteiner descends from a spectacularly proven sire. Diamant De Semilly has produced 191 1.60m horses to date!

USA’s Jill Blunt and bay Holsteiner gelding Chebli topped the 1.35m 7-year-old division. Sired by Corentino by the famed Cornet Obolensky and with proven 1.60m bloodlines in damsire Azarro, Chebli is a tbird regular and has picked up top 5 placings at the Western Family in May and Summer Fort Classic in August this year.

Watch for these and all the Crooks Show Jumping Young Horse Series competitors to move up the ranks at tbird in the seasons ahead.