Make no mistake: knowledge is power, but when it comes to show jumping statistics, it can also be a weighty responsibility.
“His stats say, if I ride good enough, he would be clear,” said Shane Sweetnam of his partner, the talented Irish Sport Horse James Kann Cruz. Fortunately, the numbers didn’t lie on Sunday, September 22, when the pair took home their second American Gold Cup victory in Traverse City, MI.
On a jump-off time of 39.54 seconds, Sweetnam bested fellow Irishman Conor Swail on 39.91 seconds, and American rider Michael Morrissey with Incento S.A. in third on 44.32 seconds.
“I was hoping, as [James Kann Cruz] got older, he’d get a little bit easier, but that hasn’t been the case. But he still jumps the same, he’s an incredible horse,” Sweetnam said of the 11-year-old gelding who made his Olympic debut in Paris this summer. “I’m very lucky to have him.”
In addition to their two American Gold Cup victories, Sweetnam and James Kann Cruz also took home the CSI 5* Longines FEI World Cup qualifier in Lexington, Kentucky in 2023. Last weekend, they finished seventh in the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Traverse City—an accomplishment on par with their whopping 75% top 10 finish rate in 36 rounds at 1.60m, according to Jumpr.
“[The American Gold Cup] is one of the biggest grands prix in America, if not the biggest,” said Sweetnam, who first won the title in 2022. “Conor [Swail] really set the bar, and then I had to take a risk, as well, and I got away with it.”
In total, nine horses cracked the code of the Cedric Longis (FRA)-designed first round course, leading to a bit of a match race on the shortened course among several riders including Sweetnam, Swail, and the USA’s McLain Ward (who finished 6th after dropping a rail with Callas). All three men currently sit in the top 15 on Longines Rankings.
As the final challenger in the jump-off, Sweetnam put James Kann Cruz’s massive stride and scope to the test, while leaning heavily on the experience of their nearly two-year-long partnership.
“Casturano hasn’t done that many *5 grands prix,” said Swail of the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding, adding that he believed the class was won thanks to Sweetnam’s speed between the second-last and last two jump-off fences. “I had a real good shot over to the second to last [jump], but Casturano goes a little left, and he jumped that extravagantly. That threw me a bit too much to the outside.”
For his part, things played out like clockwork for third-place finisher Michael Morrissey, whose grandfather Eugene R. “Gene” Mische helped to co-found the American Gold Cup. “I felt like I won the class, being on the podium,” Morrissey said. “A couple of days ago, I wasn’t even planning on jumping this class.
“I wasn’t even planning on jumping a *5 star until a couple weeks ago, and [I] wasn’t even riding [this] horse until three weeks ago,” he continued of the 11-year-old KWPN gelding owned by Ash Atkinson.
“That was my first jump off I’ve ever done on [Incento S.A.], so my goal was to just try to go double clear, and hope that all these fast, top-10 world rating guys would chase each and knock the jumps down,” Morrissey joked.
“It worked out, because we got one down, and I’m standing here at the podium talking to you guys!”