COVID forces cancellation of popular Kentucky sporting event for second year
For the second year in a row, the biggest sporting event at the Kentucky Horse Park has been canceled.
The Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event announced on Tuesday that the annual equestrian competition, held in Lexington every year since 1978 before the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020, is off.
“We have been working with US Equestrian, the Kentucky Horse Park, and state and local government on several different scenarios for April,” said Mike Cooper, president of Equestrian Events, Inc. which produces the world-class event, in a news release.
“With so many uncertainties still remaining regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, it is premature for US Equestrian to remove its restrictions on spectators,” Cooper said in a statement. “Given the importance of the health and well-being of our spectators and competitors, we feel the only option at this time is to cancel the five-star event and hopefully proceed with other events that our fans can enjoy via livestream and other outlets.”
Organizers said they hoped to announce a lower-level version of the event for the same weekend, April 21-25. Spectators will not be allowed but a lower-level event could allow some fans to compete, bringing in additional revenue.
Spectators, patrons, vendors and sponsors who paid for the 2020 event and chose to roll their money over for 2021 will have the option of full refunds or rolling their money over again for 2022, according to the announcement.
Lee Carter, EEI executive director, said that the organization is committed to hosting some event this spring and to bringing back the full-scale competition in 2022.
Last month organizers said that they could not put on this year’s full-scale Olympic-level competition without spectators, which are prohibited under the current COVID guidelines by US Equestrian, the sport’s governing body.
Carter said the organizers would be in reduced financial circumstances if they are forced to refund money for all ticketholders and vendors. The event typically draws more than 80,000 spectators to the Kentucky Horse Park over five days in late April.
The Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena is the site of one of Kentucky large mass vaccination clinics, which opened Feb. 2. The clinic will remain open indefinitely.
