CBS Cancels Televising the $1 million Las Vegas World Invitational Show Jumping Event on New Year's Eve

As the most watched network, CBS Sport's airing of 90 minutes of show jumping immediately before the NFL game between the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers could have provided a viewing audience unprecedented for the sport.

"The organizers of the event," a CBS spokesman told HorseSport USA, "did not fulfill their financial obligations of the agreement." CBS had provided the production, including several camera crews at the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas where the LVWI was staged over two days in mid-October. The spokesman said that televising the event was "canceled, not postponed."

Cancellation of TV in the United States was the latest blow to the rapidly imploding Equus Entertainment group that staged the Las Vegas World Invitational in which 25 top riders from around the world competed for a total purse that was ballyhooed as $1 million for two days of show jumping at the same facility which was sold out for five days of World Cup dressage and jumping at the end of April. The Grand Prix with a total purse of $750,000 was won by Rodrigo Pessoa. In addition to Pessoa, a Brazilian based in Brussels, Belgium, riders in the event included Meredith Michaels Beerbaum, an American from Encino, Calif. who is now Germany’s top rider, Georgina Bloomberg, of New York, a 2005 Budweiser World Cup finalist, 2004 U.S. Olympic team gold medalist McLain Ward and Laura Kraut, who was on seven of eight 2005 U.S. Samsung Super League championship teams.

Equus Entertainment's David R. Shriner, chairman and chief executive officer, said after prize money checks bounced that the event cost much more than budgeted and drew fewer than 4,000 paying customers to the 16,000-seat arena. The executive in charge of production was Fairlie Arrow, who moved to the United States after staging her own abduction in her native Australia in 1991 as a publicity stunt. She was convicted and fined for filing a false report and ordered to reimburse the costs of the police search, according to a report in the December issue of HorseSport USA.

The invitational was sanctioned by the U.S. Equestrian Federation and the FEI, the International Equestrian Federation, as a five-star show jumping event.

The go-ahead was provided after a letter of credit in the amount of $1,050,000 was issued by Icon International,, Inc. which bills itself as a specialized finance company engaged in corporate barter and other financial transactions. Icon last year became a wholly owned subsidiary of Omnicom Group, a New York Stock Exchange-listed enterprise controlling global companies engaged in advertising, marketing services, specialty communications, interactive/digital media, and media buying services.

According to officials with direct knowledge of the sanctioning process, the letter of credit was to cover prize money for the riders and payments for essential services such as judges and stewards.

No money that was to be made available under the letter of credit, officials tell HorseSport USA, has been paid. More than $3 million was also provided by investors, according to officials, but those funds have been spent.

HorseSport USA has contracted with PMG to distribute this report and other occasional news items as a service to the equestrian community. Responsibility for any errors or omissions is solely those of HorseSport USA.

HorseSport USA can be reached at 561-793-3684 or ken@horsedeals.us

Photo Credit: Rodrigo Pessoa on Baloubet du Rouet at the 2005 World Cup in Las Vegas. Photo by Ken Braddick-HorseSport USA