THERMAL, CA (December 29, 2012) – Two-time Olympic medalist Conrad Homfeld has been selected as course designer for the AIG Thermal $1 Million Grand Prix, presented by Lamborghini Newport Beach. This history-making event is scheduled for March 17 as the closing note to seven weeks of non-stop hunter/jumper action on the 2013 HITS Desert Circuit, Jan. 22 – March 17 at the HITS Desert Horse Park in Thermal, CA.
Homfeld will design the courses in the Grand Prix Ring during Desert Circuit VII, March 12-17. While every one of them will be special, it is the inaugural AIG Thermal $1 Million Grand Prix on which the eyes of the world will be affixed.
“In planning each detail of the first-ever AIG Thermal $1 Million we have taken great care to ensure that it is in every way a special event ― one that’s memorable for exhibitors and spectators alike,” said HITS President and CEO Tom Struzzieri. “In keeping with that strategy, it’s appropriate to have Conrad design the test. As a show manager, I appreciate working with someone whose plan makes a course challenging and beautiful at the same time.”
Riding the gray stallion Abdullah, Homfeld earned team Gold and individual Silver Medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The pair also won the FEI Show Jumping World Cup Finals championship in 1985, making Homfeld the first rider to notch two World Cup victories, following his 1980 win on Balbuco.
Homfeld designed the 2010 World Equestrian Games show jumping course in Kentucky and is a three-time recipient of the USEF’s Mr. & Mrs. William C. Cox Memorial Trophy for Course Designer of the Year.
Homfeld expects that with this much prize money the event will attract a cast of high level, international equestrians. “HITS is doing something important,” Homfeld said. “We will see top horse and rider combinations crossing a few borders to try to win some significant money.”
In the past two years, Homfeld has designed only two Grand Prix courses ― a CSI-W at the Kentucky National Horse Show and the 2012 Gucci Masters in Paris. It’s been “a good four or five years,” by his own reckoning, since Homfeld set a West Coast course, making the AIG Thermal $1 Million a treat indeed for those 40 riders who qualify. “This will be Conrad’s first time building for me in Thermal and I wish we could convince him to build courses for us more often,” Struzzieri said. “Since we rarely get to see Conrad out west, his work will be that much more appreciated.”
Adding to the distinctive nature of the AIG Thermal $1 Million, Struzzieri said that a special selection of jumps from Olaf Petersen, Sr., will be brought out for that one class. “We will continue the tradition that we have established with the production of our first three years of the Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix in that the night before our new class we will again bring in an entire set of new jumps procured for the special event,” Struzzieri added. “It will make for a long night on the 16th, but will add to the excitement.”
Many of the jumps will be the same as those that dazzled the crowd at the Pfizer $1 Million Grand Prix in Saugerties Sept. 9, 2012. “That entire set of Petersen jumps was sold that very day,” Struzzieri said. “This set will also be for sale, and it wouldn’t surprise me if all the jumps were sold before the class ends.”
“When I was at my best as a rider, Olaf was one of the top course designers. Anything he does on this subject will be of high quality,” Homfeld said. The course will be set at 1.45m-1.60m, leaning more toward the high end of the scale, with 16-17 jumping efforts. Beyond that, the designer had little to say about what to expect for the AIG Thermal $1 Million Grand Prix. “I will arrive with sketches, but the real work starts once I see the jumps. It’s a fluid process,” Homfeld said.
“This will be an important class for the riders and the owners, and I’ll have more butterflies that day than on other days,” Homfeld admitted. “My goal is to make it safe and also an exciting competition. My hope is that everyone who rides the course comes out feeling like it was a fair and appropriate test.”
Forty horse and rider combinations will earn their way into the prestigious class based on their performances during the Desert Circuit and at a series of West Coast horse shows participating in the newly formed AIG Thermal $1 Million Grand Prix League. There will be an additional 15 winter qualifying opportunities on the Desert Circuit.
A rider will become eligible to compete only after showing ― on any horse or combination of horses ― in at least four Open Jumper classes of $25,000 or more during four different weeks on the HITS Desert Circuit prior to the week of the AIG Thermal Million. The Leading Grand Prix Rider from the 2013 Arizona Winter Circuit and the winner of the $25,000 SmartPak Wild Card Grand Prix on March 15, during Desert Circuit VII, will also be invited to compete for the $350,000 first-place prize ― one of two such jackpots in show jumping, both offered by HITS. In addition, at the discretion of management another five riders may be invited. The reverse order of go will be determined by a rider’s money won on their leading horse, according to the AIG Thermal Million Top 40 Rider Standings.
For additional details, please refer to the prize list and specs at HitsShows.com.
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