Margie McLoone

THE Future Event Horse League has been revived for 2015 thanks to funding from Horse Sport Ireland, it was confirmed yesterday.

Speaking to The Irish Field, Pat Wall, chairman of HSI, said: “We believe we are the best breeders and producers of young event horses in the world so it’s important that we support the training of young horses through the FEHL. Successful in its own right, the league has also been the qualification method for bringing the young event horses classes into the RDS where they have proven extremely popular. It would have been a tragedy if these slots in the Dublin programme had been lost,” he concluded.

Harold McGahern, chairman of the FEHL organisers, expressed his delight on hearing yesterday’s news. “Up until November, no one had shown an interest in replacing the FEHL so, when I was approached again by our stakeholders, I sought sponsorship of €20,000 for the league which is being generously provided by HSI.

“I will talk to venue owners to arrange dates and, while there will definitely be changes to the prize structure, the league will run more or less as before with four-year-olds being adjudicated on their best four scores while the five-year-olds will be adjudicated on their best five scores.”

Whether the RDS continues to use the FEHL as a conduit for qualification for the young event horse classes at Dublin will not be decided until next month’s meeting of the equestrian committee.