£50,000 team competition to bring ‘new dimension’ to Blenheim Horse Trials
British and US riders will go head to head in a new invitational team eventing competition with a £50,000 prize pot at Agria Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials (17 to 20 September).
“The Blenheim Challenge” will run as part of the CCI4*-L class and will involve British riders from the Rising Lions taking on the US Stars & Stripes. Rising Lions is a privately funded initiative designed to give up-and-coming riders more opportunities at high-profile events.
The competition has a privately funded £50,000 prize pot, which will be split between riders, grooms, a youth programme and a charity.
Riders invited to represent the Rising Lions and the US Stars & Stripes are yet to be announced.
Blenheim event director Katrina Midgley told H&H the horse trials is “really excited” to welcome the Blenheim Challenge to the fixture.
“It brings a completely new dimension to the CCI4*-L without changing the integrity of the competition itself,” she said.
“The riders will still be competing for individual honours in one of the most prestigious CCI4*-L competitions in the world but there will now be this additional team contest running alongside it. We hope the head-to-head format will give spectators another storyline to follow throughout the three phases and create some friendly rivalry along the way."
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She added that the format draws on inspiration from golf’s Ryder Cup scoring system.
“The aim is to create a simple head-to-head contest that spectators can easily follow and get behind, while leaving the established CCI4*-L competition unchanged,” said Mrs Midgley.
The riders from the two teams will compete within the main CCI4*-L as normal but before each phase there will be a draw so each member of the team is paired against a rider on the opposing team for that phase.
The rider with the better score in each individual match wins one point for their team for that phase. If their scores are equal, each rider receives half a point. There will be four points up for grabs in each phase (based on two teams of four riders). The team with the highest overall points total from all phases will win the challenge.
Commenting on The prize money for The Blenheim Challenge, which is larger than the total for the main CCI4*-L class (£48,000). Mrs Midgley said the money has been privately raised by the team behind the Rising Lions.
“No funds have been diverted from any other classes to support this, so it is all additional prize money that would otherwise not be available as part of BPHIT [Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials],” she said.
“It is great to see new initiatives like this bringing more money into the sport, particularly as a number of different groups will benefit from this additional pot.
“A large part of the prize fund will go to the riders, but amounts are also allocated for the grooms of both teams, the youth programme of the national governing body of the winning team and an equestrian charity selected by the winning team.”
“It is great to see new initiatives like this bringing more money into the sport”
Katrina Midgley
Rising Lions supported a squad of British riders contest the CCI4*-S at Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event in May and Blenheim will be the first of its initiatives on home soil.
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Lucy is an experienced news journalist, reporter and presenter. Since joining the Horse & Hound team in 2015, Lucy has reported from major global sporting events including the Tokyo Paralympic Games and multiple European Championships, as well as Badminton, Burghley and London, to name a few. She has covered current affairs and sports news across the full spectrum of equestrian disciplines and racing, as well as human and equine welfare, industry news and court cases.