2023 FEI World Cup Jumping Final – All you need to know
We have delved into the details on the FEI website and are happy to bring you a summary of how the FEI World Cup Final works and when to tune in to see all the action.
As we told you in our previous article (click HERE), the action will take place in Omaha over three rounds. These rounds will be across a four-day timeframe with a rest day before the final competition. Each round will see the rails set up to 1.60m over courses that have been designed by Level 4 course designer, Bernado Costa Cabral, from Portugal. The venue is the CHI Health Centre, which features “Omaha’s largest arena & convention center”, which will also see Finals in Dressage and Vaulting be held over the course of the show.
The full jumping program started on Monday with the first horse inspection, followed by official training which has just taken place. The first round of the jumping competition is set to take place at 7:15 pm on Wednesday evening (see below for times in Australia). It will be a normal speed class where all 44 combinations from 19 countries will participate, vying for prize money of 100,000 €.
All combinations will be back at the same time on Thursday evening for the second competition, which will be a standard Table A course, with a jump-off if necessary. This time the purse will be increased to 150,000 €.
In these first two competitions, points will be awarded to each combination who completes the round. The winner on each night will be awarded one point more than the number of starters. Second place will earn 2 points less than the winner, while third place will earn 1 point less than second. This continues right down through the field. After the first two nights, points earned from each competition will be added and all combinations ranked in order of combined performance over the two rounds.
Only the top 30 combinations will be invited to compete in the Final, which is scheduled for 6:15 pm on Saturday the 8th (see below for times in Australia), with Friday being a rest day. The top 30 into the Final will have their ranking converted to penalties with which they will start Saturday’s final. The combination with the highest number of points earnt in the first two rounds will go into the Final carrying zero penalties. The 29 other combinations will start the Final carrying a number of penalties equal to half of the difference between their total points and the leader’s total points. It all sounds a bit complicated, however it is very similar to the system used to determine the major titles at the Australian Championships over the past few years. What it does mean that during the first two rounds, every single place will be fought for as every place in these rounds will impact the number of penalties carried into the Final.
The 30 top combinations will start in Saturday’s Final, which is a competition over two rounds, where only the top 20 combinations after Round 1 will be invited back for the second round and to compete for the World Cup Title. Other combinations who are not in the top 20 but record a clear round, will also be invited into the second round however, they will only be competing for the classification and the 300,000 € prize money in the Final and not for the overall title.
The overall World Cup winners will be the combination with the lowest score after the three competitions, when they will take home 172,500 € out of the massive 750,000 € prize pool. This brings the total prizemoney on offer for the three rounds and the overall title to 1,300,000 €!
All the action will be broadcast live through FEI TV, which is by subscription.
Omaha is 15 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) and therefore the start times of the three World Cup Rounds will be as follows:
FIRST ROUND: Scheduled to start at 10:15 am AEST on Thursday 6 April
SECOND ROUND: Scheduled to start at 10:15 AEST am on Friday 7 April
FINAL ROUND: Scheduled to start at 9:15 AEST am on Sunday 9 April
We hope that you all enjoy the competition and once again wish Sam Overton and Oaks Cassanova the very best of luck.