I was looking at the prize list of saugerties series and noticed that the million dollar GP was replaced with a 500 000$ smaller event.
Anyone knows why?
$1 million is a lot of money, and they really haven’t had very many top riders enter it in the past few years. Not a very strong international presence.
I would assume lack of entries. Just anecdotally, it seems like a lot of the people who had HITS as a regular stop are going to VSF and/or Lake Placid this year instead.
I think it is listed as a 5 star, so I think that is different too.
i think it conflicts with the WEG
It’s been a 5* event for years, but all that that means in terms of prize money is that the show needs to offer at least 500,000 CHF ($502,310) in combined PM for all FEI classes. Even being the week before WEG, there are still a number of top level riders that will be attending this year, just not with their team horses. It’s established enough (and not running against any other major FEI show) so that they won’t lose a ton of top-level riders even with the lower prize money. Half a million still isn’t a small amount for two minutes in the ring!
How come Thermal and Ocala offered 1 Million and Saugerties is offering $500,000? Isn’t Saugerties suppose to be the biggest of the the three offered? It doesn’t make sense to have Thermal and Ocala at 1 Million but Saugerties gets the least amount of money?
The most amazing thing to me is that the prize money is the same for the Grand Prix and the big hunter class, where I think in past years the jumps topped out at 3’5". So if you have a hunter and a jumper that qualify, you can go for a million in prize money, but over radically different size jumps. :lol:
They are running a 5* $500,000 in Chicago as well. They split it up between the two. Now you have two chances to get the money.
That makes perfect sense to promote the newer place.
Do the entries qualify from a master list of all Hits locations? Or do they have to qualify at the respective properties?
I believe it’s also the same weekend as the Spruce Meadows Masters which has the CN International with over $3.5M…the big riders come to that so that has to play a huge role in the reductions as well!
I think it’s been the same weekend as the big class at Spruce for a while, hasn’t it?
No, it doesn’t go off of the HITS list. It’s a 5*, so You enter, and they go off of the World ranking list. I would imagine everyone that enters will get in.
Interesting. Thanks!
