New home for British Masters showjumping show
After three years at Chester racecourse, the British Masters has a new home for 2011.
The international event will now take place at South View Equestrian Centre, Wettenhall on 1-3 July after Chester admitted it “didn’t stack up economically”.
The event was launched in 2008 to great hype, which included a racy photoshoot with Laura Renwick and Georgie Crumley to get the public’s attention. But it didn’t attract the crowds as hoped.
A spokesman for Chester said: “We gave it a couple of years, but it just wasn’t getting the support.”
Charles Britton of South View, which is a smaller venue, said: “It’s a big commitment, but with the Olympics approaching, the UK needs to be running more internationals and hopefully this will prove to other centres this is not ‘mission impossible’”.
A spokesman for British Showjumping told H&H “a couple” of other centres had also made bids for the event.
“South View Arena submitted a strong proposal,” she said.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
Mr Britton added plans to promote the event were in progress and that it would not be “just another show at South View”.
As well as boasting almost £100,000 in prize-money, the competition has been selected as an Olympic qualifiying competition, which, alongside Hickstead’s Royal International Horse Show’s Meydan FEI Nations Cup and King George V Gold Cup, will make up Britain’s three qualifiers.
This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (17 february, 2011)
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.