Brooks and Kapattack hold their nerve at Taupo Christmas Classic

Natasha Brooks kept a cool head to guide her former racehorse Kapattack to victory in the showjumping World Cup Premier League at the Christmas Classic in Taupo on Saturday.

The opening round produced just two clears from the 22 starters – both from former series winners and Olympians, Maurice Beatson (Dannevirke) aboard Mandalay Cove and Katie Laurie (Mystery Creek) aboard Dunstan On The Point Eve.

Judges called back 13 combinations with 12 faults or fewer, with the only clear of the round coming from 19-year-old Lily Tootill (Auckland) and Ulysses NZPH.

With faults accumulating across the two rounds, the pressure was on those on fewer faults when four faulters Brooks and Carissa Mccall (Auckland) aboard

Esteban MVNZ added just a rail apiece to their tally.

Mccall also picked up a single time fault, but it left the two riders on eight and nine faults respectively.

Laurie and Dunstan On The Point Eve were the first of the clear rounds to return to the ring but took two rails, and added a time fault to finish on nine faults.

Things didn’t go Beatson’s way either when he returned with Mandalay Cove, and picked up 17 faults.

It gave a very special win to Brooks, at their first world cup start of the season and just their third show.

The combination were unlucky to take the second-to-last fence in the first round, and when her plan to go clear in the second went array, she felt she could be still in with a chance of a place . . . but then everyone else who followed her also had rails.

The world cup this season was always on Brooks’ radar, so she was disappointed to not start earlier, but with a win at the business end of the series, she’ll most definitely be starting at the next two.

It is just Brooks and Kapi’s second world cup win – their first at Dannevirke in the 2015-2016 season.

Beatson won the six-year-old series on Roman Warrior, while Melody Matheson of Dannevirke won the university series competition on Conyers.

The competition heads to Dannevirke (January 6-8), before the grand final at Waitemata (January 14-15).

The winner of the New Zealand league has the opportunity to represent the country at the world cup final in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States in March.