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New Maclay Structure

I think two sets of judges is an excellent idea, its almost inhumane to expect the same judges to sit through two days in a row of endless competitors. And since the last day they are starting from scratch, it is a separate class, I see nothing wrong with having a fresh set of eyes for the final day. Its definitely a departure from tradition though.

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Add me to the in favor of different judging panels each day. Dont have much of an opinion on the rest of this but seems to be very fair to judges and riders. Not worried about them judging other judges picks…they do that all year anyway looking at the same top riders in most shows all year.

The departure from tradition may be why it seems weird to have different judges on different days, but then again the NHS isn’t at the Garden anymore, so that tradition has gone.

I don’t see how they’ll be able to do anything but have separate judges. As I said before, it’s a big/unfair ask to have one panel do both days. It’ll be interesting to see what they do.

Times change. I just don’t understand the reasoning for the current changes. :thinking:

Even though I was the first one to mention the idea here, I’ll be surprised if they have two sets of judges. Because…
:musical_note:Tradition! Tradition.:musical_note:

I believe that back in the day when they had both the Medal and Maclay finals at the National Horse Show on the same weekend, the same judges officiated at both classes. So that was really a big weekend to hope that your favorite judge was in the booth. :crossed_fingers:

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How large were the classes when the same judge was officiating back in the day? Were there fewer rounds to judge than the numbers of today?

You are right, I was watching the Medal and Maclay finals, and Good Hands too, back in the day when they all took place over the weekend at MSG. Same judges for Medal and Maclay.

There were still a large number of competitors but certainly not as many as there are today . It wasn’t an all day affair for each class, but it took up a big chunk of time. Sorry I can’t be more specific, why did I throw out all of my NHS programs?

There were morning, afternoon and evening sessions at MSG, and I seem to remember that the eq finals took the morning/afternoon sessions and then there was a big jumper class in the evenings, possibly a hunter class too on Saturday night. Sunday night was I think the Grand Prix of NY class…

That’s OK. I didn’t expect specific numbers, just a generalization. :blush:

I wonder if the judging of the 2023 Maclay was addressed when the changes were made and perhaps they felt no need to include it in their press release. I can’t imagine that one result of the changes being a very long weekend for the judges occurred to me, and others here, but not to the committee.

This extremely entertaining archive of equitation results lists the number of starters at the finals for some of the years, including 15 in the very first Maclay final. (And the Maclay winner from 1936, Ellie Wood Baxter, is still riding to this day at the age of 100!) In the 1960s, the numbers seemed to be in the 60s most of those years.

The highest number I ever remember for the Medal final was around 312. I think that must have been in the early to mid 90s, although I don’t remember the exact year. I do remember the first time they changed it so that the rider’s back number was the same as their spot in the order of go. That seemed like such an incredible stroke of genius, and we all wondered why nobody had thought of it before. Lol.

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Thanks for posting that. :blush:

You’re welcome. It’s always fun to peruse that list.

I’m often amazed at how many horses did well with multiple riders, sometimes for years and years.

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I thought Ellie Wood Baxter had passed away a few years ago, so glad to see I was wrong.

I think I understand the problem this is attempting to solve for, but the scenarios presented don’t seem compelling/wide-spread enough to warrant it. (I think you could probably do some back of the napkin calculations to determine how many people this would have benefited last year, but I don’t have the bandwidth to try it.) I do like the inclusion of automatic bids if you’re a top finisher at other Finals; that allows for someone who had bad luck at Regionals, but has been consistent elsewhere to get in.

At the end of the day, it’s money-driven. This gets more bodies to KY, damned if they’re capable of getting around safely.

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This picture is her on a horse a little over a year ago, and I know she celebrated her hundredth birthday this past September.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10164490097650788&id=678610787&set=a.10152090827210788&source=48

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So…with the previous regionals/final structure, one was judged by one set of judges at regionals, and another at finals.

Especially given that scores are NOT carried forward to Sunday, it seems to me that having two sets of judges for the two days is completely consistent with the previous structure, and arguably even “traditional.”

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Thanks for posting that, what an amazing woman and such an interesting life she has had. I especially like how she didn’t feel the need to get married at a very young age, which was another departure from tradition in that era. She had a fulfilling and exciting life even before her marriage!

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