Fan Donations of More than $550,000 Reverses Cancellation of Lexington 5* 3-Day Event
4 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Fan Donations of More than $550,000 Reverses Cancellation of Lexington 5* 3-Day Event
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Feb. 10, 2021–Fans of the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event have donated more than $550,000/€454,000 so that the five-star event can go on in April in what the organizers on Wednesday described as an “unprecedented outpouring of support” to reverse an earlier cancellation.
The LRK3DE event, one of only seven 5*s in the world in addition to the Olympics in Tokyo, led to a new partnership between the organizers, Equestrian Events, Inc.and the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation to hold the CCI5*-L and a new CCI4*-S without spectators.
“The uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic placed us in the financially impossible position of having to run the Five Star event without spectators, a situation that left us no choice but to cancel the Five Star for 2021 in order to preserve it for many years to come,” said Mike Cooper, EEI President. “We are humbled and honored by the response of the eventing community as they’ve stepped up in a mind-blowing way enabling us to go forward.”
A fundraising campaign was started by athletes and fueled by the grassroots effort of the broader eventing community, generating more than $550,000 in donations to run the event. “While that still leaves us short of the amount needed, it is enough to convince us that the balance can be raised,” Mike said. “We are now, with the assistance of the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation, committed to going forward with the Five Star.”
Both groups are non-profit charitable organizations.
“The Kentucky Three-Day Event is the foremost event held at the Kentucky Horse Park and the lifeblood of the eventing world,” said Clay Green, chairman of the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation board. “The Horse Park was established for the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships which gave birth to the annual Kentucky Three-Day Event whose success is responsible for the park’s position of prominence and so much that has happened at the park, including the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Seeing the number of people pleading for the event to happen this year made it very clear that we must do all we can to ensure that it does.”
The event was not held in 2020 in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
The lineup of CCI5*-L events in the world in 2021:
–April 21-25 Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, USA
–June 5-9 Badminton, England
–June 17-20 Luhmühlen, Germany
–July 23/Aug. 8 Tokyo Olympic Games, Japan
–Sept. 2-5 Burghley, England
–Oct. 13-17 Elkton, Maryland, USA
–Oct. 27-31 Pau, France
–Nov. 18-21 Adelaide, South Australia
