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Kentucky Three-Day Event

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The Rolex Kentucky Three Day is an eventing competition held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. The Rolex Kentucky is a three and four star CCI eventing show, and the only four star (CCI****) show in the US. Four stars is the highest level of competition, the same level of competition as Olympic Eventing. The event is sponsered by Rolex watches and is known by many equestrians simply as Rolex. Prize money of $190,000 is distributed among the top placings with $65,000 as well as a Rolex watch being awarded to the first place horse and rider.

Competition takes place over four days. Dressage competition is on Thursday and Friday (due to the large number of entries), cross-country is on Saturday, and show-jumping is on Sunday.

Rolex is held the last weekend of April and is the week before the Kentucky Derby.

Rolex is one of the three events in the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. In order to win this prestigious award the rider must win Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, Badminton Horse Trials the first week of May, and Burghley Horse Trials the first week of September all in succession. So far the only rider to win the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing is Pippa Funnell. The award for this $250,000 in prize money.

The History of the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event

In 1974, Bruce Davidson and the United States Equestrian Team won individual and team gold at the World Championships held in Burghley, England. This gave the United States the right to hold the next World Championships four years later, in 1978. The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky was due to open around the same time, and plans were made to hold the World Championships there.

Equestrian Events, Inc. (EEI) was formed to as a non-profit organization to help plan the competition and raise public awareness. The first horse trials at the Kentucky Horse Park was held in 1976, to prepare. In 1977, the National Pony Club Rally and the North American Junior Three-Day Event Championships was also held there.

The 1978 event had more than 170,000 spectators and added more than $4 million to the local economy. The event was broadcast worldwide, as well as nationally on CBS. The success of the World Championships helped to convince the EEU to continue the event annually. Today, the event is broadcast worldwide in 18 languages.

Although the event began as an advanced three-day, and later included open intermediate and preliminary competitions, today it only holds the highest level: the CCI****.

Previous Rider/Horse Winners

www.rk3de.org

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