At the stunning location of the Longines Global Champions Tour in Miami Beach Carlos Lopez set the quickest time that put him in fourth in the 1.50/1.55 class. He did that with the Upgrade-daughter Cuplandra.

The time that the Columbian rider managed to put on the clock in the jump-off with Cuplandra sport-spr (Upgrade out of Tokelandra ster by Metall, breeder Helena Hoeve from Den Ham) was over four seconds quicker than the one from winner Jane Richard Philips with Dieudonne de Guldenboom (s.Nabab de Rêve). But unfortunately, one pole dropped. That made Carlos Lopez finishing in fourth with the mare that was bred by Gerrit Westendorp. “Great that she manages to set such good results! I try to keep track on what she is doing, and often search for footage of Cuplandra on YouTube”, the breeder tells us. He sold the mare as a two-year-old. “I first bred Cuplandra’s dam with some dressage sires. But that didn’t bring me much luck. The first broke a leg, and the second got colic. I was a bit fed up with it. But then I spoke to stallion owner Koen Brinkman. He adviced me to use the Heartbreaker-son Upgrade. I really liked him at the stallion show so decided to follow his advice. The result was Cuplandra. When she was two-year-old, some Spanish buyers game to look at some horses. I asked reasonable money for her because it was a nice filly, she had a good canter and nice trot. But it didn’t take long to close the deal.”

On the KWPN-site

After the sale, the breeder didn’t hear from her for a long time. That was until KWPN inspector Henk Dirksen told him about a news item where she was mentioned. “He rang me to say that Cuplandra did really well jumping. I immediately had a look for myself, and yes, there she was. Since then, I try to follow what she is doing. I am very proud to have bred a horse like this”, says breeder Gerrit Westendorp, who breeds both dressage- and jumper horses with the Landra-damline.

Coincidence

In the GCT Miami Beach 1.50/1.55m class Ben Maher took sixth place with the full brother of the KWPN-stallion Baltic VDL: Don Vito (Quaprice Z out of Nellandra ster pref prest by Jus de Pomme, breeder Engbert van Ittersum from Giethoorn). Coincidence is that back in the times, the father of Cuplandra’s breeder bought a mare from the Landra-line from the father of the breeder of this Don Vito, Van Ittersum.

JS/YBF for KWPN