The FEI Nations Cup originally slated to run March 3-8, 2015, in Wellington, Fla., will now be held at the HITS showgrounds in Ocala, Fla., due to the termination of a sponsorship agreement. Equestrian Sport Productions, usual host of the event at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, will still host a $100,000 FEI Nations Cup competition on Feb. 27 during Week 8 of the Winter Equestrian Festival, but it will not be a qualifier for the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup series final, due to the Winter Equestrian Festival’s longtime commitment to main sponsor Rolex.
“Basically, the [Fédération Equestre Internationale] have a sponsorship agreement with Longines as part of the Furusiyya Nations Cup series,” explained ESP President Michael Stone. “We have Rolex as one of our main sponsors. So for the last couple of years, the FEI have allowed us to run the Nations Cup just with the Furusiyya title, and not including Longines.
“But for 2015, Longines was able to activate their sponsorship contract with the FEI. We weren’t able to fulfill that part of it,” he continued. “So they moved the qualifier from us, then they needed somewhere else to do it.”
The $200,000 CSIO Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup will take place on Feb. 13 at the HITS Ocala showgrounds, along with a $150,000 grand prix on Feb. 15, during Week 5 of the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit. The children’s, junior and young rider Nations Cups, which have been held at the Winter Equestrian Festival in recent years, will remain at WEF and run on Feb. 28, also during WEF Week 8.
The official decision to change venues took place in October, but it came as no surprise.
“We knew that 2014 was the last year of the agreement that we could have it as a qualifier,” said Stone. “We still have our Nations Cup. Our Nations Cup continues as it always has.”
The FEI put the Furusiyya series qualifier up for bid, and HITS outbid several interested organizers.
“The U.S. and Canada are the only countries that are allowed to have the potential of two Nations Cups because of geographic size,” said HITS Vice President Eric Straus.
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“We were advised by the [U.S. Equestrian Federation] that we had been approved by them,” continued Straus. “We are still awaiting our official sanction from the FEI. We’re on the calendar to hold the CSIO, but we have not been given the official approval. The jumping committee has approved it as an event, but as a qualifying event [for the series final], we’re still waiting on that official word from the FEI.”
HITS is adding amenities to their Post Time Farm facility in anticipation of holding the Nations Cup.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for HITS to show the quality of our venue,” said Straus. “It’s home of the [Great American] Million in Ocala. It has gotten many great reviews. We have the new Ocala Horse Properties Stadium, which has brand new footing and was the site of the Million last year, which was very well received. And we are building out a new stabling area right adjacent to the Ocala Horse Properties Stadium. It will be very compact and very easily accessible for the teams to be able to train and compete right there.”
Straus is meeting with the mayor and county commissioners in Ocala in early December in hopes of building up community support for the competition. “We want to involve the community from the very beginning in getting the public to attend,” said Straus.
HITS has changed the schedule of their normal circuit competitions to highlight the Nations Cup competition.
“We’re actually going to halt the horse show during the Nations Cup so everyone who’s there—as a competitor, as a mother, as a grandmother attending the horse show—can go to the Nations Cup and cheer on their favorite team,” added Straus, who is also working on establishing an international food court and a host family program within the community to receive international guests.
“Many of the competitors who have been in Wellington are not familiar with Ocala, and so we want to give them a resource that’s in the community to help them out,” Straus said. “It’s our first year, but we hope it’s not our last year for sure. We want to do a really good job and build on our success in 2015 to host it again in 2016.”
