Eventing’s
Best Entered at Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI**** Presented by Farnam 
By Classic Communications
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always, eventing fans can expect to see some of the sport’s biggest names
in action at this year’s Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam.
Entries from five countries include several past champions and Olympic and World
Championship medalists. This year’s Rolex Kentucky CCI****, an FEI
Qualifying Competition and U.S. Equestrian Federation Selection Trial for the
2008 Olympic Games, returns to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, April
26-29. The event will host many of the world’s best horse-and-rider pairs
as they compete for one of the most coveted purses in equestrian sports and one
of the most prestigious championships in the sport of eventing. Five-time
Olympian and six-time Kentucky Three-Day Event champion Bruce Davidson, Sr.,
of Unionville, PA, on his 2006 U.S. Eventing Association Mare of the Year,
Jam, and three-time Olympian Karen O’Connor, of The Plains, VA, another
Rolex Kentucky champion, with perennial Kentucky Top 10 finisher Upstage and the
14.2-hand crowd-pleasing Theodore O’Connor, return for this year’s event.
Individual Bronze medalist from the 2006 World Equestrian Games, Amy
Tryon, of Duvall,  WA,
on a new ride, Le Samurai, along with two-time Olympic Team Gold medalist Phillip
Dutton (when he rode for Australia), now an American citizen, Pan American and
World Championship Team medalist Jan Byyny, and her fellow World Champion
Team member John Williams bring lots of metal and mettle to Rolex Kentucky
2007. Chief among the international stars are Australian Clayton Fredericks
and Ben Along Time, Individual Silver medal-winners in the Eventing Championship
of the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. (Clayton and Ben Along
Time are pictured above at the right in a spot of trouble at the Boat on the Island
at the WEG, 2006.) Also coming to test the site of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian
Games 2010 are Olympic veterans Mary King, of Great Britain, who brings
Apache Sauce, who has finished ninth at the Boekelo CCI***, in October 2006 and
6th at Belton Park at the end of March this year (Mary and Call Again Cavalier
are pictured at the left below jumping into the water at the WEG, 2006.): Ian
Stark, of Scotland, who brings Full Circle II, who finished thirteenth at
Boekelo last season and has finished twenty-second at Belton Park and eighth at
Lincolnshire this season; Karin Donckers, of Belgium, with Gazelle de la
Brasseserie; Australia's Wendy Schaeffer, riding Kayuna Sun Magic, and
fellow Australian Heath Ryan, on Flame. The 2007 Rolex Kentucky
Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam, will run a CCI**** without steeplechase
(short format) and the 10th championship for the U.S. Equestrian Team  Foundation
Pinnacle Trophy, signifying the zenith in eventing competition in the United States. Last
year’s event, a competition testing some of the world’s most athletic
horses in dressage, cross-country and show jumping, attracted a record 90,748
people over the four days of the competition. The only four-star event in
the Western Hemisphere, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam,
is the premier competition for the top horses and riders in eventing. The competition
features this country’s best horses and riders and international stars vying
for their share of $200,000 in prize money and a chance at the $250,000 Rolex
Grand Slam of eventing. The winning owner will be awarded $65,000 and the winning
rider will receive a Rolex timepiece. The classic Kentucky Julep Cup is presented
to each as a reminder of their singular accomplishment. Rolex Kentucky Three-Day
Event organizer, Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI), is a non-profit charitable corporation
created in 1975 to stage the 1978 World Three-Day Event Championships, the first
time those championships had been held outside of Europe. Following the success
of those World Championships, the U.S. Equestrian Federation asked EEI to organize
an annual three-day event in the spring and the Kentucky Three-Day Event was born.
Rolex Watch U.S.A. became title sponsor in 1981.
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