As always, eventing fans can expect to see some of the sport’s biggest names in action at this year’s Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam. Entries from five countries include several past champions and Olympic and World Championship medalists.
This year’s Rolex Kentucky CCI****, an FEI Qualifying Competition and U.S. Equestrian Federation Selection Trial for the 2008 Olympic Games, returns to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, April 26-29. The event will host many of the world’s best horse-and-rider pairs as they compete for one of the most coveted purses in equestrian sports and one of the most prestigious championships in the sport of eventing.
Five-time Olympian and six-time Kentucky Three-Day Event champion Bruce Davidson, Sr., of Unionville, PA, on his 2006 U.S. Eventing Association Mare of the Year, Jam, and three-time Olympian Karen O’Connor of The Plains, VA, another Rolex Kentucky champion, with perennial Kentucky Top 10 finisher Upstage and the 14.2-hand crowd-pleasing Theodore O’Connor, return for this year’s event.
Individual Bronze medalist from the 2006 World Equestrian Games, Amy Tryon of Duvall, WA, on a new ride, Le Samurai, along with two-time Olympic Team Gold medalist Phillip Dutton (when he rode for Australia), now an American citizen, Pan American and World Championship Team medalist Jan Byyny, and her fellow World Champion Team member John Williams bring lots of metal and mettle to Rolex Kentucky 2007.
Chief among the international stars are Australian Clayton Fredericks and Ben Along Time, Individual Silver medal-winners in the Eventing Championship of the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. Also coming to test the site of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 are Olympic veterans Mary King of Great Britain, Ian Stark of Scotland, Karin Donckers of Belgium and Wendy Schaeffer and Heath Ryan of Australia.
The 2007 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam, will run a CCI**** without steeplechase (short format) and the 10th championship for the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation Pinnacle Trophy, signifying the zenith in eventing competition in the United States.
Last year’s event, a competition testing some of the world’s most athletic horses in dressage, cross-country and show jumping, attracted a record 90,748 people over the four days of the competition.
The only four-star event in the Western Hemisphere, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam, is the premier competition for the top horses and riders in eventing. The competition features this country’s best horses and riders and international stars vying for their share of $200,000 in prize money and a chance at the $250,000 Rolex Grand Slam of eventing. The winning owner will be awarded $65,000 and the winning rider will receive a Rolex timepiece. The classic Kentucky Julep Cup is presented to each as a reminder of their singular accomplishment.
Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event organizer, Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI), is a non-profit charitable corporation created in 1975 to stage the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships, the first time those championships had been held outside of Europe. Following the success of those World Championships, the U.S. Equestrian Federation asked EEI to organize an annual three-day event in the spring and the Kentucky Three-Day Event was born. Rolex Watch U.S.A. became title sponsor in 1981.
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