Laura Kraut & Jubilee d'Ouilly clearing the water during the GCT Grand Prix of Madrid (Stefano Grasso/Longines Global Champions Tour)

Madrid, Spain - The Global Champions Tour 2013 season started up in Madrid on Friday and right away Laura Kraut was making an impact. With Wotsamillion, Kraut sped to victory in the Trofeo Grupo Arturo 1.45m opening speed class. At 74.70s, their clear jumping round was more than four seconds faster than the next closest clear, delivered by Great Britain’s Tim Gredley & Unex Omelli, and earned them victory in the GCT’s opening class of 2013.

In the biggest GCT class of the weekend, the Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Madrid, Kraut put forth another great effort. The Grand Prix took a two rounds plus jump-off format and Kraut, riding Jubilee d’Ouilly, nearly managed to win. After going clear each of the first two rounds, they were joined by seven other combinations, including fellow Americans Richard Spooner & Cristallo, in the jump-off. They were the last to tackle the tricky jump-off course, and finished in blazing speed, but an early rail down meant that they would finish second. Winners Michael Whitaker & Viking were they only pair that jumped all three rounds without a fault.

After her strong start this weekend Laura Kraut is currently 2nd on the GCT “ranking in points” list (which reflects the final placing in the Grand Prix of Madrid) with 37. Whitaker is in first with 40, and Richard Spooner cracks the top ten at number 7 with 30 points.

Read an in-depth report of the GCT Grand Prix of Madrid at www.globalchampionstour.com. For full results from Madrid click here.

About the 2013 GCT season Kraut reamarked “I am planning to focus on this Tour, I plan to jump as many legs as I can and finish high up. I have two top horses now, in the past it was just Cedric and now it is nice to know I have Jubilee also. I have a lot of confidence in her now. It was her first time on grass and she really liked it and I hope it will continue.”