United States Equestrian Federation,
Inc.
4047 Iron Works Parkway, Lexington, KY 40511-8483 Tel: (859) 258-2472
Fax (859) 231-6662 Web site: www.usef.org
NEWS RELEASE 
Follow
the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, Presented by Farnam, Live As It Happens on
the Web Lexington, KY—April 17, 2007—Equestrian
sports fans around the world will be able to watch the 2007 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day
Event, presented by Farnam, as it happens thanks to the world’s first-ever
full, live, end-to-end webcast of a four-star three-day event. This year’s
Rolex Kentucky CCI****, an FEI Qualifying Competition and U.S. Equestrian Federation
(USEF) Selection Trial for the 2008 Olympic Games, returns to the Kentucky Horse
Park in Lexington, KY, April 26-29. Live webcasts of all three phases (Thursday
and Friday dressage, Saturday cross-country and Sunday show jumping) will be available
online at www.NBCSports.com for a low cost of just $7.99 for all four days! The
Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event will be broadcast on NBC television as a one-hour
special on Sunday, May 6, from 5:00-6:00 p.m. EDT. To accommodate those fans of
the sport who want to see the action live as it happens, NBC, in conjunction with
Equestrian Events, Inc., the producer of the event, and the United States Equestrian
Federation, is presenting these unprecedented live webcasts. Carr-Hughes
Productions, producer of the NBC and international telecasts of the Rolex Kentucky
Three-Day Event, will generate the programming for the webcasts. Kerry Millikin,
the 1996 Olympic Individual Bronze medalist and winner of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day
Event in 1987, will serve as the analyst for the webcasts. “Last year,
thanks to the initiative of our webmaster, Evan Haller, we presented our first-ever
live webcast on the event website featuring our most popular cross-country location,
the Head of the Lake,” said Jane Atkinson, Event Director and Executive Vice
President of Equestrian Events, Inc. “We received incredible response and
are very excited to work with NBC, Carr-Hughes Productions and the U.S. Equestrian
Federation to bring all four days of this year’s competition to fans around
the world. For those who can’t make it to Kentucky, this is the perfect opportunity
to see the action as it is happening.” “The NBC.com webcast helps
promote horse sports to fans all over the world while extending the investment
in the production of the NBC telecast into another medium,” said John Long,
CEO of the USEF. “We are excited that NBC is expanding their coverage of
our sport with Rolex Kentucky as their first equestrian webcast." The
2007 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam, will run a CCI4* 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 Rolex Kentucky, 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. Past winners include a bevy of Olympic medalists: Bruce Davidson,
David and Karen O’Connor and Kim Severson of the United States, New Zealand’s
Blyth Tait, Pippa Funnell of Great Britain and Andrew Hoy of Australia.
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. Due in
part to the success and proven organization of the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event,
the Kentucky Horse Park was chosen as the site for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian
Games in 2010. This will mark the first time the Games, which feature World Championships
in eight equestrian disciplines, are being held outside of Europe. 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. For
more information on the 2007 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, presented by Farnam,
please visit the Rolex Kentucky website at www.rk3de.org. To order the live webcasts,
please go to www.NBCSports.com. ENDS For more information,
please contact Marty Bauman, Press Chief, at (508) 698-6810, classic.pr@verizon.net,
or Maria Partlow, USEF Senior Vice President of Marketing/Communications, at (859)
225-6941, mpartlow@usef.org. As the National Governing
Body (NGB) of Equestrian Sport, the United States Equestrian Federation®,
Inc. (USEF) is the regulatory body for 28 breeds and disciplines, including our
country’s international teams competing in the disciplines of dressage, driving,
endurance, eventing, para-equestrian, reining, show jumping and vaulting. With
over 89,000 members, it is the country’s largest multi-breed organization
and annually license more than 2,800 competitions nationwide. The USEF governs
all aspects of competition, including education and licensing of all judges, stewards,
and technical delegates who officiate shows.
Vision Statement: The
vision of United States Equestrian Federation® is to provide leadership for
equestrian sport in the United States of America, promoting the pursuit of excellence
from the grassroots to the Olympic Games, based on a foundation of fair, safe
competition and the welfare of its horses, and embracing this vision, to be the
best national equestrian federation in the world.
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