The U.S. will be hosting the Longines FEI World Cup finals twice in the next four years, with the Split Rock Jumping Tour’s Fort. Worth, Texas, venue just announced as the site of the show jumping and dressage competition, three years after Omaha’s scheduled 2023 encore of that city’s 2017 Cup finals debut.
Fort Worth will offer a venue like no other for the Longines FEI World Cup finals.
It’s quite a coup for Split Rock, which is only in its eighth year.
“We don’t like to sit still,” explained Derek Braun, Split Rock’s president and founder.
“It’s always been a big dream of mine to organize a championship.”
When the tour readied its inaugural 4-star show jumping qualifier slated for the Will Rogers Coliseum, “It was in our head as potential.”
But as was the case with so many plans, Covid threw a wrench into the picture when Split Rock’s first Fort Worth show had to be cancelled in 2020.
“That left us in a real bind because we wanted to operate an event there before making the decision to bid it,” said Derek.
But 2021 offered an opportunity and the Split Rock crew grabbed it.
Conor Swail was the winner of the inaugural Fort Worth World Cup qualifier. (c) Winslow Photography
“Last year, because Fort Worth was so incredibly successful for everyone and the feedback was so amazing,” the team decided to push for the finals.
“We only had six weeks to put together the bid from the time that our event went,” Derek recounted.
“We all put our heads down and made it happen and had an amazing presentation with FEI. I guess we did a good enough job to give them the confidence to give it to us.”
Although Split Rock has never put on a dressage show, he said “we will absolutely bring people that can help us with those details to accomplish only the best.”
The city of Fort. Worth, which is a partner in the effort with Split Rock, will be the seventh U.S. location to hold a World Cup finals. Others were Baltimore, Tampa, Del Mar, Los Angeles (dressage only) Las Vegas (five times) and Omaha. Vegas was supposed to have the finals again in 2020, but it also was a casualty of Covid and did not bid again.
Fort Worth’s finals presents a nice step forward in terms of building a spectator base for major international jumping and dressage competitions in parts of the country other than the East and West coasts. Lisa Roskens, who spearheaded the Omaha finals presented through the Omaha Equestrian Foundation, noted, “When we pitched for 2017, we said our goal was not just to host a great Finals, but to inspire others to do so as well and to expand the reach of the FEI in the central part of the country.”
Lisa also complimented Erin Davis-Heineking, who approached Split Rock with the concept of having an annual jumper show in Fort Worth.
“She is a true talent in and out of the saddle,” Lisa observed.
Derek and his associates plan to be in Omaha for its finals next year.
“I have huge respect for what they were able to do in 2017 and obviously going to do next year. I plan on utilizing some of the team they have put together for their event. I have not spoken to them yet, but I hope they are willing to give us all and any advice possible, because they did such a great job.”
Vaulting, which will be one of the features at Omaha for the first time, may be a possibility in Fort Worth, Derek said, but it’s still early days in terms of making that decision.
Entertainment–always a big part of the finals–will have a western theme, naturally, considering the location.
“The western culture there is like nothing else, and we plan to have everybody who comes to town experience all the culture Fort Worth has to offer; the nightlife, the shopping. The atmosphere just draws everyone in, Everyone is going to be able to make a vacation weekend of it for sure,” said Derek.
