Wellington (USA), which had been confirmed as an official candidate to stage the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 2018, has withdrawn from the bidding process.

Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP), the company that had put together the US bid for 2018, informed the FEI today that it was officially withdrawing from the process, due to a change in local government.

ESP President Michael Stone, expressed his regret that Wellington was withdrawing from the bid process. “We are fully aware of the massively positive economic impact the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 had on Kentucky”, he said, “but we have a responsibility to the local community, equestrian sport, and the FEI World Equestrian Games not to waste the time, effort and resources of all parties involved in the international selection process.”

The three bid cities still in the running to host the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in 2018 are Rabat (MAR); Bromont (CAN); Vienna (AUT). Bidding teams from the three official candidate cities will come to FEI Headquarters in Lausanne (SUI) this week for a meeting on 11 July.

“We are sorry Wellington will not be pursuing their bid,””, FEI Secretary General Ingmar De Vos said, “but we have three other candidates that have all put in very strong bids for 2018, so there is still plenty of excitement about the bidding process, and that excitement will certainly be increased when the bid teams come to FEI HQ this week.”