At last Tuesday’s press conference in West Palm presenting the WEF (Wellington Equestrian Festival) Mark Bellissimo, Chairman of the WEF and Gérard Manzinali, President of the Chantilly Jumping, sealed and announced a prestigious partnership between the Floridian event and the Jumping International de Chantilly.
It involves a partnership between two of the world’s most important competitions. The WEF is a 12-week circuit, bringing together professional and amateur riders from 30 countries in the spectacular facilities in West Palm Beach in South Eastern Florida. The site is candidate for organising the 2018 World Equestrian Games. During the three months of competition, from January to March, the WEF also welcomes FEI world cup events and a Nations Cup and awards over 7million$ in prizes.
The Jumping de Chantilly is one of the prestigious on the international circuit, held on one of the most beautiful venues there is, the Chantilly Hippodrome, with as a backdrop the Chateau de Chantilly for the number 2 arena, the green Amphitheatre and the 7th Prince de Condé’s Grand Stables for the main arena, the Meautry Arena. Running over two dates: the first, a CSI 1* and a CSI 2*, from the 18th to the 20th of April and the second, CSI 5*, stage of the Global Champions Tour and CSI 2*, 24th to 27th July.
Chantilly Jumping has just renewed for a further five years their partnership with the Global Champions Tour: thus the 30 best riders in the world, according to the Longines world ranking, who with a few amateur riders and ‘two star’ level riders, will come and share the 900.000€ of Prizemoney from the 24th to 27th of July.
Amongst these CSI 2* riders there will be a new guest: the winner of the Artisan Farm Young Rider Grand Prix Series, a competition which will be held in Wellington and reserved for “U 25” riders.
This is one of the mains aspects of this twinning between WEF and Chantilly Jumping. On the other hand, the winners of both 2* Grand Prix in Chantilly (April and July) will be invited to the WEF in 2015. Exchanges of visibility will be made in the respective programmes and in the arenas, in particular in the presence of an obstacle in the arena materialising the twinning. These are only the first materialisations of this partnership, which is tacitly renewable till April 2017.
Gerard Manzinali spoke about the partnership, stating, "Wellington and Chantilly are considered the equestrian capitals in their respective countries, so it came naturally for Mr. Bellissimo and I to create a partnership with our shows. It is safe to say that this partnership will allow us to raise the allotted slots for American riders, and we are also very excited to offer an invitation to the best young American rider through the Artisan Farms Young Rider Grand Prix Series. Thank you to Michael Stone and Christian Paillot, our ambassador here in Wellington as a resident in Florida, for their assistance in making this partnership a reality."
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