This Silver Anniversary year of Rolex Watch USA. joining the Kentucky Three-Day Event as Title Sponsor is reason for grand celebration. The last 25 years have been a glorious partnership between the organizer, Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI), and Rolex Watch USA., enabling the event to develop into one of the most prestigious in the world and exert a worldwide impact on the fortunes of U.S. eventing teams in Olympic and World Championship competition.

The 2005 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event will he held April 28-May 1 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Once again many of the world’s best three-day event horses and riders will be on hand to compete for one of the sport’s most coveted titles.

“We are once again very excited about the growth of interest in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event,” said Jane Atkinson, EEI Executive Vice President and Rolex Kentucky Event Director. “We are most thankful to Rolex Watch USA for its continued support, which has allowed us to develop this competition into one of our sports most spectacular events.”

The audience interest in the NBC telecast of the 2004 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event has prompted a second Rolex Kentucky broadcast, scheduled for 2005 on Sunday, May 8 from 4-5 p.m. EDT.

The 2005 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, which will retain the traditional CCI**** format with all four of the standard phases on cross-country day, once again will be a featured part of the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing.

Pippa Funnell of Great Britain, an experienced rider at the Four Star level, brought the young Primmore's Pride, her eventual Athens Olympic Individual Bronze Medal-winner, to Rolex Kentucky in 2003. "Kiri" had placed sixth in his first Four Star at Burghley in 2002, but came of age at Rolex Kentucky 2003, capturing the title of Rolex Champion. The pair then went on to win at Burghley in September of that year. Funnell's win on Supreme Rock at Badminton the weekend following her win at Kentucky, and her two wins on Primmore's Pride enabled her to become the first winner of the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, which awards $250,000 to the rider who wins, consecutively, at Rolex Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley.

Australian Olympic veteran Andrew Hoy won Burghely last September to start the Rolex Grand Slam cycle anew. Hoy is expected to compete at the 2005 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event as he seeks to win a second consecutive Rolex Grand Slam event on his way to a hoped-for Grand Slam title.

Held annually at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington the last weekend in April, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day is organized by EEI, a non-profit charitable corporation created in 1975 to stage the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships. Following the success of those World Championships, the U.S. national federation asked EEI to organize an annual Three-Day Event in the spring and the Kentucky Three-Day Event was born.

Rolex has sponsored equestrian events since 1957-—an excellent pairing of timepieces and riders with both displaying their common characteristics of grace, style and excellent timing. Their commitment to riders and equestrian events has only grown over the years.

Ticket information for this year’s Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event is available on the Rolex Kentucky website (www.rk3de.org). To be placed on a mailing list to receive the Ticket Brochure, please contact Equestrian Events, Inc., P.O. Box 12110, Lexington, KY 40580-2110, (859) 254-8123, fax (859) 254-5116, or [email protected].
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