What is the RK3DE?
THE ONLY FOUR STAR THREE-DAY EVENT IN THE AMERICAS
Because horse and rider combinations compete in World Championships and Olympic Games at the Four Star level, the ability to train and test themselves at this level on an annual basis is critical to developing strong individuals and teams for those contests.
While not every combination that competes at the Four Star level will be chosen to represent the U.S. or, in the case of foreign riders, their own country, the Rolex Four Star Championship, $250,000 in prize money and a Rolex Watch make the competition important in its own right. Additionally for U.S. riders, the USET Foundation CCI**** Championship for the Pinnacle Cup marks the high point of any U.S. rider's career.
To win Rolex Kentucky sets a horse and rider apart and they become members of that upper echelon who are winners of a CCI****. Simply to finish also puts them in select company.
ONE OF THREE EVENTS IN THE ROLEX GRAND SLAM OF EVENTING The best shot in six years will occur in 2010 when Oliver Townend of Great Britain, 8th at Rolex Kentucky in 2009 with Carousel Quest in their first Four Star as a team, crosses the pond to try to join his fellow Brit as only the second winner of the Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing. With Flint Curtis, Ollie won Badminton two week after Rolex Kentucky 2009 and in September he won Burghley on Carousel Quest. Ollie will be at Kentucky with as many horses as he can muster, up to the limit of four.
The Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing awards $350,000 to the Rider who can win the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials in England the first weekend in May and the Burghley Land Rover Horse Trials in England the first of September in succession. In its 5th year in 2003, Pippa Funnell of Great Britain became the first Grand Slam winner with wins at Kentucky on Primmore's Pride, Badminton on Supreme Rock, and Burghley on Primmore's Pride, taking the $250,000 prize (the amount of prize money at the time) that most had thought impossible to win. When the next Grand Slam winner will burst onto the Eventing scene is anyone's guess.