Three new five-star competitions at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington, Florida, have been demoted to their original rating, before they’ve even taken place.
Organisers Equestrian Sport Productions says it has been forced to reduce the star levels due to “objections from a number of conflicting CSI five-star events”.
“We have reworked our events to conform to the restrictions,” said ESP’s Mark Bellissimo. “We have managed to maintain a significant amount of the prize-money that will be offered and the consequent ranking points available for the riders.”
Because of this the new Rolex $1m (£610,000) bonus, for winning four out of five five-stars, has been abandoned. Rolex continues to be the show’s “official timepiece”.
The dates of the 2014 shows affected are 22-26 January (three-star), 19-23 February (four-star) and 12-16 March (three-star).
