Pic Kit Houghton
What you need to know about the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping Finals:
- A total of 45 Jumping horses were presented at the first veterinary inspection at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas today and were passed fit to compete.
- 4 riders presented two horses each – Kevin Staut (FRA), Katie Laurie (NZL), Kirsten Coe (USA) and Vinton Karrasch (USA).
- Following the withdrawal of Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Alsharbatly, the starting field for the Final is reduced to 41 riders.
- The draw for order-of-go in Thursday’s first competition will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.
- Course designer is America’s Anthony d’Ambrosio.
- In the 37-year history of the FEI World Cup™ Jumping Finals, a total of 496 riders from 53 nations have competed.
- The USA holds the record for the greatest number of riders attending the Finals, with a total of 113. The country with the next highest number is Germany with a total of 48.
- Austria’s Hugo Simon was the first winner of the FEI World Cup™ Jumping title at the inaugural Final in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1979. Riding Gladstone, he came out on top in a two-way jump-off against America’s Katie Monahan and The Jones Boy.
- Great Britain’s Michael Whitaker holds the record for the greatest number of attendances at the Final. He competed on 23 occasions but never won the title.
- Defending champion is Germany’s Daniel Deusser (Cornet D’Amour).
- Germany’s Marcus Ehning (Singular LS La Silla) is bidding to become the first-ever rider to win the FEI World Cup™ Jumping title for the fourth time.
- There are three competitions to decide the Longines FEI World Cup 2014/2015 champion:
- Competition 1 is a Speed class, with seconds added for knockdowns.
- Competition 2 is one round against the clock, and one jump-off which is also against the clock. Results are then converted into points which are carried into the third and last competition.
- Competition 3 is two rounds of jumping over a Grand Prix course of fences between 1.50m and 1.60m in height. The top 30 horse-and-rider combinations are eligible to compete but only 20 go through to the second round. The leading rider after the first two competitions goes last, and starts on a zero score.
- Total prize money for the Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping 2014/2015 Final is €1.3 million.
- Ground Jury: Kim Morris (CAN) President, David Distler (USA), Neil O’Connor (USA), Jack Robson (USA), Sven Holmberg (SWE). Technical Delegate Leopoldo Palacios (VEN).
Source: FEI Communications