It’s been a long while since I’ve given much credence to anything Buck says. Not being mean, I just sometimes don’t know what planet he’s on.
The terrain at Fair Hill is really tough. I used to live there and rode it daily. It’s hard to prepare for it unless you can recreate it, which most riders can’t. Even the Brits, who have public hill gallops, say that it’s tough terrain. This is one reason why I believe riders don’t want to ride this 5*. It’s an old-style course in a sport going fast in the other direction.
Another reason is the calendar. Someone above said that horses should be fit by October, but I’d say the reverse is true—horses are usually sore by October. Many need a break in the summer because they can’t keep galloping on rock-hard footing all season long, and then they don’t have time or soundness to leg up again, especially for the most severely terrained 5*.
Often riders are this time of year are more focused on the young horse championships and don’t have tome to leg up a huge-terrain 5*. Others spend their season abroad training with Europeans; they’re not going to fly home early with one horse to do a domestic 5*; they will stay and do Burghley in September or Pau in October; Boekelo and Le Lion.
Finally, an advantage for Americans traveling abroad for a 5* is to see how their horses handle long airplane travel and huge, loud crowds, if the rider is one who would reasonably be vying for a spot on an international team. You don’t have huge loud crowds in Maryland.
I love Fair Hill. I was not a fan of the decision to turn it into a 5*. While I nevertheless don’t want to see it fail, I don’t think what they have done makes any sense.
