I’m just curious about something I’ve noticed. Both Tic Tac (Ben Maher, GB) and Imothep (Taizo Sugitani, JPN) are under part American ownership. I wonder why the owners wouldn’t place them with an American rider for a shot at the games. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?
Maybe the best rider for the horse is not an American.
Maybe the American riders were booked up.
Maybe there was a better chance to actually get to the Olympics on a different team.
The only way to know the actual reason would be to ask those owners!
IIRC Imothep is leased to the rider to represent Japan. Before this rider, the horse was on the Irish team at WEG 2014.
His American owner discusses her concerns about sending Imothep to Rio in this article:
http://www.noellefloyd.com/skipping-olympics-horse-owner-speaks-out-rio-risks/
The fact that Olympic horses must be owned by someone of the same nationality as the rider means that any American interest in the horse can’t be a majority interest. In addition to everything yaya said, the American owner may simply not have a deciding vote in the flag the horse competes under.
Most of our top riders already have very generous sponsors that they ride for. They provide them with multiple mounts, not just one or two, so it’s probably in their best interest not to rock the boat by riding possible Grand Prix mounts for other owners.
I know Mclain rides several horses for Double H and Beezie has a long standing partnership with Abigail Wexner who has funded several top mounts for her. I believe Kent and Todd have similar set ups as well.
There is nothing in Article 139 (ownership) that says anything about percentage of ownership. It just says that the horse must be shown under the nationality of the owner or lessee (so the horses mentioned in the OP might be leased), and in the case of multiple owners of multiple nationalities, the owners have to decide under which nationality the horse is shown.
it does say the ownership for Olympics has to be that of the rider, so either have a partner of the same nationality, or make the rider a part owner (since no percentage requirement, could be for a minimal amount).
Sometimes a rider will get a part ownership in lieu of training fees, and then get a percentage of the money when a horse is sold.
In the case of Imothep, the American owner said she had final say on whether he would go to Rio, assuming he qualified.
So it must be part of the contract with the rider/lessee ?
[QUOTE=dani0303;8799664]
I’m just curious about something I’ve noticed. Both Tic Tac (Ben Maher, GB) and Imothep (Taizo Sugitani, JPN) are under part American ownership. I wonder why the owners wouldn’t place them with an American rider for a shot at the games. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this?[/QUOTE]
I think that’s precisely why they placed them with the riders they did. Imothep was moved from Darargh (who was hardly a lock for the Irish team) to Taizo who is essentially a lock for the Japanese team.
Same with Tic Tac, he was doing well enough with Leslie, but not well enough to be in Olympic contention for the American team. So he was moved over to Maher who was in need of an Olympic mount.
