Ocala Jockey Club
International
3
-Day Event
After just two runs of the Ocala Jockey
Club International 3-Day Event in November
of 2016 and 2017, this “equine
triathlon” competition showcasing dressage,
show jumping and cross-country
segments ridden by the same horse-rider
combination teams over the course
of multiple days has already become a
popular destination.
It won the 2017 Florida Sports Foundation’s Small Market
Event of the Year award. The prepared galloping tracks
are already gaining reputation among riders as having
some of the best footing in the country, if not in the world.
As a result, FEI-level eventing riders supporting this event
come not just from the East Coast, but from across the West
Coast, Canada and beyond. As a 4* perennial top eventing
rider Joe Meyer says: “The venue is world class. The
weather is pretty much guaranteed. Even without rain the
footing and going is fantastic. The courses are well suited to
all levels. The one star is encouraging. The two star is educational
and three star is a champions’ track. It’s fantastic
for trainers to bring students who can hone their skill without
the worry of poor footing, wind and rain.” The sprawling
900-acre Ocala Jockey Club’s picturesque setting provides
a premier yet authentic experience for riders and spectators
alike.
In the last two years, the event ran three FEI divisions
(CCI1*, CCI2* and CIC3*). The 2017 CIC3* division was won
by Phillip Dutton and Z, one of the five horse-rider combination
chosen to represent the USA in the 2018 World
Equestrian Games held at Tryon, NC. Lynn Symansky and
her off-track Thoroughbred Donner, another of the five US
Team members to WEG, won the 2016 Ocala Jockey Club
International 3-Day Event’s CIC3* Thoroughbred Eventing
Champion award. The 2017 Event grew to 178 entries
from 115 entries in 2016, and qualified 6 high performance
competitors from 4 countries to the 2018 World Equestrian
Games. Due to the early popularity of the event and
venue, the sanctioning bodies awarded the Ocala Jockey
Club to add the CCI3* division as a new level for the 2018
event, to be run November 15-18. The main difference
between the existing CIC3* and the added CCI3* is the
additional length of the cross country course and the number
of efforts required to be cleared by the horse and rider
combination. While any of the jumping effort sizes appear
challenging to most humans and horses with a strong selfpreservation
instinct, the CCI3* level requires an additional
level of stamina, training and courage to get through the
test. The Ocala Jockey Club CCI3* will be only the 5th of
TRAINING & Showing
such levels in the USA, reflecting both the added prestige
to the event as well as the need for high performance
riders to prepare for international competitions such as 4*
events across the world and the 2020 Olympic Games. Joe
Meyer says, “The CCI3* is a great addition to the program.
It is really needed on the East Coast.”
Top courses around the world need to include a track and
jumping efforts that are challenging physically and mentally
to the horse and rider combinations, but footing is of
paramount importance to allow the test to be as safe and
predictable as possible. The naturally sandy loam ground
of the Ocala Jockey Club along with well-rooted natural
“100-year” bahia grass forms a great foundation to do
just that. It certainly helps that Ocala’s typical sunny and
balmy November weather is in sharp contrast to weather
almost anywhere else in the world. A top venue should
also be pleasant to spectators and a VIP experience alike,
which the 900-acre facility does as well. The live oak-dotted
rolling hills are more like the English countryside than the
mostly flat land of Florida, and provide both the rider-appreciated
long gallops between jumps and magnificent
scenery loved by the spectators. The quality of the course
design is another important element that needs to balance
safety with sufficient challenges to properly prepare
for international competitions. Mike Etherington-Smith, the
former head of British Eventing and cross country for the
Sydney 2000 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, has designed
the Ocala Jockey Club CIC3* cross country course
since the event’s inception. This year, he has a timing
conflict that has him in Australia at the Adelaide CCI4* the
same weekend as this year’s Ocala Jockey Club Event.
As a result, Etherington-Smith will collaborate on the CIC3*
and CCI3* courses with Clayton Fredericks, a Silver Olympic
medalist and former Canadian eventing team coach, who
has been designing the CCI1* and CCI2* courses at the
Ocala Jockey Club Event in the first two years and will do
so again for 2018.
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