EQUESTRIAN SPORT/Blarney event: Blarney Castle, which has hosted a world-class three-day event for the past 10 years, has been taken off the international fixture list, following the death of Sir Richard Colthurst 11 days ago.
The event, which was called off last year after the first day of dressage because of waterlogging, was due to run at the end of May, but Sir Richard's heir Charles Colthurst yesterday issued a statement confirming that the horse trials would not run next month.
The statement cited family distress and uncertainties due to probate and capital acquisitions tax as the main reasons behind the decision.
Blarney Castle is best known as home of the Blarney Stone. A drop in tourists visiting the attraction is an expected side-effect of the war in Iraq and a projected downturn in income is cited as another factor in the decision to cancel.
The horse trials have been chiefly underwritten by the Colthurst family for the past 10 years and, with no possibility of sufficient funding coming from an external source, Charles Colthurst has decided to cancel the event this year.
"I understand that attempts may be afoot to raise outside funding for an event in 2004 and, should this be the case, then I would welcome any proposals in this regard," Colthurst's statement concluded.
However, Colthurst's sister and event director, Georgina Colthurst, said yesterday that she would not be running the event next year.
"I'm devastated," she said, after hearing of the cancellation only through the press statement. "We certainly won't consider running next year. This year is the last year or not at all."
The cancellation leaves a major hole in the international calendar as Punchestown is hosting the European three-day event championships in September and has therefore abandoned its traditional mid-May slot.
The British three-day event at Windsor, which usually runs in May, has also been cancelled because of lack of funding, meaning that there are no one or two-star competitions in either Ireland or England this spring.
