ASB Grand National Announces $24,000 in Championship Supplements for 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Lexington, Ky. – The American Saddlebred Registry’s Grand National program has announced $24,000 in new Championship Stakes for 2007, to be held only at Regional Championship events that have been supporters of the Grand National in previous years. This announcement is the initial step in a future integration of the Grand National with the new Regional Championship series just begun by the American Saddlebred Horse Association.
Grand National Championship supplements of $3,000 each will be added to stakes purses already on offer in selected 2007 competitions. Only Grand National-eligible horses qualify to win the purse supplements for their current owners, recorders and nominators of the sire of the Grand National horse. Grand National prize supplements are awarded to the top finishing three horses in each class that are Grand National-eligible; therefore, horses other than those winning the top three prizes in the class itself may still win substantial prize money.
As a forerunner of pending changes in Grand National purse payouts, the $3,000 supplements will be paid equally to the Owner, Recorder and Stallion Nominator for each place, as follows: first is $1,500, with $500 to each; second is $1,050, with $350 to each; and third is $450, with $150 to each.
This year, at the Arizona Futurity, $3,000 is added to the Three-Gaited Show Pleasure Championship; at the California Futurity, to the Fine Harness Open Championship; at the Northwest Saddlebred Association Futurity, to the Three-Gaited Country Pleasure Championship; at the Wisconsin Futurity, to the Five-Gaited Open Championship; at the St. Louis National, to the Three-Gaited Open Championship and to the Five-Gaited Show Pleasure Championship; at the North Carolina State Fair, to the Western Country Pleasure Championship; and at the Southeastern Charity Horse Show, to the Three-Gaited Park Open Championship.
These Championship prize supplements are in addition to the other, different classes that have already been announced for these competitions as part of the regular Grand National prize program. Details on the Grand National are available at www.saddlebred.com/Prize-Grand-National. Grand National-eligible horses are denoted with a special symbol on their Certificates of Registration.
According to Registrar Alan F. Balch, Executive Secretary of the American Saddlebred Horse Association, the purse supplements are just the beginning of a sweeping reform and revitalization of the Grand National prize program. “At our convention earlier this year, the Grand National Committee tasked the staff to consult with Marcia Carothers, who has been with the Grand National since its inception, to brainstorm with our various constituencies ways and means to improve this important program. We brought a number of suggestions back to the Committee and the Registry board of directors, which then were developed and improved further. This is just the first in a series of announcements we will be making in the next week or so.”
For a lifetime recording in the Grand National, at present, any horse by a Grand National Stallion can be recorded for life at the following fees: $1,500 for a four-year-old or older horse; $1,000 for a three-year-old; and $750 for a two-year-old. Stallions can currently be nominated for their lifetimes at $2,500 for a horse by a Grand National sire and $3,000 for a stallion not by a Grand National sire.
The Registry will take all reasonable steps to assist competition managements of this year’s Regional Championship events to make sure all potential exhibitors at their competitions are notified of the purse supplements.
Questions about the Grand National should be directed to Patricia Edwards, Senior Registry Associate/Program Manager, at p.edwards@asha.net.
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