January 12, 2007

FTI Consulting Announces Return of $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge for 2007 Winter Equestrian Festival

Wellington, FL – Stadium Jumping, Inc., the management company for the 2007 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF), is pleased to announce that FTI Consulting of Annapolis, MD, is once again sponsoring the $200,000 FTI Rider Challenge.

The FTI Rider Challenge will be held during the 2007 WEF, from January 24 to March 18 at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club in Wellington, FL.

The FTI Rider Challenge will be a rider bonus pool for $200,000 in which the riders will accumulate points in the eight WEF Challenge Cups, the CN Jumper Classic and every Sunday Grand Prix event that are all part of WEF in Wellington. The rider with the most points accumulated at the end of WEF in Wellington will be awarded $100,000. Second place will be given $50,000, third place will receive $30,000 and $20,000 will be given to fourth place. Last year’s winner was Beezie Madden, a 2004 Athens Olympic gold medalist.

During the WEF Challenge Cups, riders must declare the horse with which they would like to be scored. During the Sunday Grand Prix events, the riders are only allowed to ride one horse, which will accumulate points based on their performance.

Points given to riders for each of the seventeen competitions will be awarded in a two-part formula based on the number of riders in each competition as follows:

1. First place in a grand prix will be awarded two additional points more than the number of riders in that particular competition. Second place will be awarded one point more than the third place rider, and so on. Each placing will subsequently be given a score based on this formula and the order in which they finish the competition. A rider that fails to complete the course on their declared horse will receive zero points for that competition.

2. Based on the prize money offered for each competition, the number of points earned by a rider in Part 1 will be multiplied by an incremental coefficient of 1 for every $25,000 in prize money offered (i.e. $25,000 - $49,000 x coefficient of 1; $50,000 - $74,999 x coefficient of 2, etc.). If at the end of the 17th competition there is a tie in the standings for first place only, the tie will be broken by the rider who won the most competitions.

Dennis Shaughnessy, Chairman of the Board for FTI Consulting, stated, “We thought last year’s event was great, which is why we’re sponsoring again this year. We received rave reviews from the riders.”

“We’ve changed the scoring this year to reflect the winners of the Sunday grand prix events, which are harder, to make it more fair,” he added. “I think riders are getting used to [the system], and they’ll be even more pumped up for it this year. They’ll be aggressive and watch where they stand week to week in pursuit of the $100,000 prize.”

Beezie Madden took home $100,000 last year as the winner of the FTI Rider Challenge. When she learned of the new rider prize series, she modified her show plans. “I knew about it from the beginning. I had planned to show later in the season. I knew it would be hardest at the beginning, so I showed a young horse, Play On, who was second in his first grand prix. I knew it was something I could try and do because I had enough horses to do all of the classes in the series. I was really trying to win- it’s nice money!”

She added, “It’s the biggest bonus that I’ve ever won that goes just to the riders.”

Madden will follow last year’s plan of showing her younger horses, Play On and Integrity, early in the WEF circuit and save veterans DeSilvio, Judgement and Authentic for the big money classes at the end.

FTI is a premier provider of problem-solving consulting and technology services to major corporations, financial institutions and law firms when confronting critical issues that shape their future and the future of their clients, such as financial and operational improvement, major litigation, mergers and acquisitions and regulatory issues.

Strategically located in 24 of the major US cities, London and Melbourne, FTI’s total workforce of more than 1,100 employees includes numerous PhDs, MBAs, CPAs, CIRAs and CFEs, who are committed to delivering the highest level of service to clients.

The Winter Equestrian Festival is an eight-week hunter/jumper and three-week dressage horse show circuit produced by Eugene R. Mische and Stadium Jumping, Inc. It is the largest and longest consecutively running sporting event in the world. It is also the largest equestrian event and major contributor to Palm Beach County’s $553+ million equestrian industry.

For more information on FTI Consulting, please visit their website at: www.fticonsulting.com.

For more information on the Winter Equestrian Festival, please visit: www.stadiumjumping.com, or call 561-793-JUMP.

Photo Credit: 2006 FTI Rider Challenge winner Beezie Madden and Play On by Randi Muster 2006