46 Horses Ready To Start At The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Presented by Land Rover
Lexington, KY— April 25, 2012 — In front of a die-hard crowd of about 300 people on a windy, wet and cold afternoon, the international ground jury accepted all of the 46 horses presented at the first horse inspection at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Land Rover. The event begins on Thursday, April 25, and runs through Sunday, April 28.
The ground jury of Nick Burton (Great Britain), Christina Klingspor (Sweden) and Brian Ross (United States) held only one horse—Quimbo, ridden by Andrew Nicholson of New Zealand—but then accepted him when he was presented a second time.
Riders from seven nations—the United States, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and Ecuador—will be aiming for the top prizes that will be awarded on Sunday, including the coveted Rolex watch. The total prize money is $250,000, of which $80,000 will go to the winner.
Dressage gets underway on Thursday at 9:00 a.m., continuing until 4 p.m., and resumes Friday from 9:00 to 4:00. Saturday features the cross-country phase, the heart of the competition, with the climactic show jumping phase on Sunday.
The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Land Rover, is the Western Hemisphere’s only Four-Star Three-Day Event. It is part of the HSBC FEI ClassicsTM and features the world’s best horses and riders vying for their share of $250,000 in prize money as well as a shot at the $350,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, which is awarded to any rider who wins the Rolex Kentucky, Mitsubishi Motors Badminton and Land Rover Burghley Four-Star Events in succession.
Rolex Kentucky draws more than 50,000 spectators to the Kentucky Horse Park and is seen by millions more on worldwide telecasts. This year’s event features Olympic and World Equestrian Games medalists from Australia, Canada, Ecuador, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States and will crown the 16th Rolex/USEF National CCI4* Champion.
The event will be televised as the Rolex Equestrian Championships, presented by Land Rover, on NBC on Sunday, April 28, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. EDT. Leading up to the NBC telecast, USEFNetwork.com, presented by SmartPak, is offering live, wall-to-wall coverage of the dressage, cross-country, and show jumping phases. This coverage can be seen on computers, tablets, and smart TV/Google TV devices in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Google TV users can go to http://www.usefnetwork.com/googletv for an enhanced experience.
Throughout the rest of the world, FEI TV will air LIVE coverage of Saturday’s cross-country and Sunday’s show jumping competitions. To sign up for FEI TV, please visit www.feitv.org.
The full broadcast schedule is listed below and is available under the Live Broadcast Schedule tab at USEFNetwork.com. Times are subject to change.
April 25: LIVE Dressage on USEFNetwork.com, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT
April 26: LIVE Dressage on USEFNetwork.com, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT
April 27: LIVE Cross-Country on USEFNetwork.com, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT
April 28: LIVE Show Jumping on USEFNetwork.com, 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. EDT
Awards Ceremony on USEFNetwork.com, 3:00 p.m. ET
Rolex Equestrian Championships presented by Land Rover on
NBC, 4:00 to 5 p.m. EDT
The Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is produced by Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI), a non-profit charitable Kentucky corporation that was established initially to produce the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park. Following the success of those championships, EEI established an annual event that quickly evolved into what is today the only four-star three-day event in the western hemisphere, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. EEI started producing the Kentucky Reining Cup in 2011.
Full results and further information on the 2013 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event Presented by Land Rover is available at the Rolex Kentucky website at www.rk3de.org.
