There’s still a chance that there will be a 5-star three-day event somewhere this year. While Kentucky, Badminton, Burghley, Luhmuhlen and Adelaide have fallen by the pandemic wayside, Pau in France and the new Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill are continuing to look at running in October.
According to Jeff Newman, the president and CEO of the Maryland 5-star organizing committee, “On our end, we are still evaluating, monitoring and listening, but hope to finalize a course of action very soon.” The event, to run Oct. 15-18, also includes the Future Event Horse and Young Event Horse championships.
The team from Pau “is going to spare no effort and do everything possible” to run the Oct. 21-25 event (which also includes the world driving championship for singles), a statement from that fixture said.
Even though it’s only early June, there’s already concern about the fate of indoor shows around the world this autumn. The Helsinki, Finland, show, slated for Oct. 22-25, won’t be running because it “faces too many challenges.” It’s the second leg of the 2020-2021 Western European World Cup League to be cancelled, after the Madrid Horse Week scheduled for late November was put off until next year. The World Cup finals in Las Vegas was cancelled in April; this makes one wonder what will happen to the 2021 final in Sweden, if qualifiers don’t happen.
Noted Helsinki event director Tom Gordin, “Having all facts currently available, and estimations based on discussion with numerous experts on health issues, as well as sports people, we face a scenario which has too many extremely high risk consequences.”
The fear, common to all shows that are stepping aside this year, involved “late cancellation due to new restrictions, on traveling, border crossing and especially restrictions on visitor numbers allowed” indoors. Sponsors and exhibitors withdrawing or decreasing input play a big role in the event budget situation.
“Less ticket sales, due to social distance challenges or lack of vaccine are essential risk factors too,” said Gordin.