Australian Jumping is excited to announce the launch of a new competition on the jumping landscape, set to change the face of the sport in Australia. The second half of 2019 will see the inaugural running of the brand new Australian Jumping Teams League (AJTL).

Based on the internationally renowned Global Champions League, the AJTL will be like nothing ever seen in Australia and will be the richest series in the history of jumping in the country.

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Chatham Park are running the AJTL Series, which, similar to the teams competition run by Michelle Lang-McMahon over the past few years at the Aquis Champions Tour, will have a focus on corporate sponsorship.

In the initial 2019 series there will be three rounds held at different venues, each with eye popping prize money on offer. The competition will comprise of 10 teams of four riders (to be announced over the coming weeks).

Prize money will be the richest in Australian History, with a total of up to $380,000 on offer for the series. Each event will be worth $100,000 with $40,000 going to the winning team and prize money going all the way down to eighth place. In the overall competition, up to $80,000 will be split between the top three overall teams.

With this much prize money on offer, this competition will be serious jumping, with fences at a challenging 1.40-1.45m and 40 of the top riders in the country involved. Leading Australian Jumping figure George Sanna said “I believe the AJTL will be a real game changer in attracting as yet untapped interest and financial sponsorship for our sport.” Amber Fuller, the current Australian Senior Champion who is playing a pivotal role in bringing the competition to life said that the AJTL was “the most exciting thing to happen in Australian Showjumping in decades”.

We can announce that the 10 corporate sponsors and team owners are as follows:

Chatham Park
Emcee Apparel
Equine International Airfrieght
Horsepower Feeds and Supplements
Keirnan Haulage
Martin Collins Australia
Oaks Sport Horses
Takapoto Estate Showjumping
Willinga Park
Yandoo Park

The three rounds will be held as follows:
Willinga Park – Friday 13^th September
Sale – Sunday 24^th November
Summer Classic at SIEC– Sunday 8^th December

To be run under Article 238.2.1 conditions, each of the three events will form a competition in its own right, with points earnt over the three events accumulating to determine the AJTL champions for 2019. The winners of each event will be awarded 20 points, 17 for second, 15 for third, etc all the way down to three points for finishing tenth.

Each event will consist of two rounds. Placings at each event will be determined by adding the penalties incurred for each of the three riders competing at that event over both rounds. If penalties are equal, course completion times will come into play.

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An exciting element to the competition is that each team must have one rider under 25 years of age, to encourage exposure and training of future professional riders.

In the coming weeks, Australian Jumping will be announcing and introducing the members of each team.

Click HERE to take you to the new Australian Jumping Teams League Facebook page where you can keep up to date with all the news about what is going to be a ground breaking competition.