Last year, the All Nations Cup show in Aachen turned out to be true celebration for the famous sire WH Justice who became the Gold Champion Stallion and was the crowd's favourite. Enjoy the three of his daughters in the above pictures, all bred and owned by the King Abdulaziz Arabian Horse Center in Saudi Arabia and all born in 2008.
At the end of this month, on the 29th and 30th September, we are looking forward to the 30th All Nations Cup Show in Aachen. And this year's ANC will not just celebrate the past, but also bring up some new moments in future. For a very first time, the ANC will hold a"Yearling Championship" for fillies and colts. This means that the "Junior Championship" will be held between the two and the three year olds only. So it will be the same system that the Menton show established this year.
So we are now right on the stage and back to the thoughts in our September 2009 "Monthly", and it starts now with more GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE medals and titles – 3 in each category, Yearlings, Juniors and Senior Champion in each category. So 18 medals in total instead of 12 before. Some people say that this makes more people happy - more owners can have a medal, trainers and handlers more bonus, and the show organizers more higher rated sponsorships. It it the end of the story?
Let us look back three months and to the Menton show who introduced such a Yearling Championships for a very first time in Europe. The Yearling championships were done outside the ECAHO system - mainly because of the prize money that was nicely offered for each "Top Five" yearling (5.000 EUR each) This way the owners could get some return after all the money they have to invest to get a horse prepared and shown and to these shows.
Now in Aachen, there is no prize money but a separate Yearling Championships anyway. Will this work in a general, sportive mind, also in the longterm? Or are we coming sooner or later to a "medal inflation", when maybe next time also the senior championships get divided in a younger and older senior championship group, or maybe next the Two-year-olds and Three-year-olds separated in the finals (as we already saw in Paris, in 1993, when two World Champion Mares and two World Champion Stallions came out in the same year.
A Champion title and GOLD medal had always a special value. It was in a limited number limited and the title achieved in the final competition between the several class winners.
Now the yearlings compete in the final once again, in a competition between the first and second placed. In the so-named ‘Junior Championship’ we will have the two and three year olds only, yearlings are excluded. Another change in the championship is that it will be judged comparatively, which means that each horse in the championship can win GOLD independent if it was 1st or 2nd in their class. The future will prove and give experience as to whether each of these changes add value and whether they should continue.
May everybody watch and enjoy a great Aachen 2012 show. It is "The All Nations Cup", it is a 'Title Show" and one of the most prestigious ones, which is why all important studs and their superstars are keen to come to Aachen and to take the challenge in the consistently strong competition. |
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