A control device for a cooling track for cooling a rolling product accepts at least partially characteristic information for a starting enthalpy value. The control device (8) determines a refrigerant volume progression (K) such that a heat volume corresponding to the difference between the starting enthalpy value (EA) and a prespecified end enthalpy value (EE) is removed from a rolling product segment (12) of the rolling product (5) during the movement of said rolling product through the cooling track (1). The control device (8) determines the refrigerant volume progression (K) independently of whether a prespecified end temperature value (TE) assigned to the end enthalpy value (EE) is reached at the end of application of refrigerant (6) to the rolling product (5). The control device (8) applies refrigerant (6) to the rolling product segment (12) during its passage through the cooling track (1) according to the determined refrigerant volume progression (K).