Hold your horses: Show will be back

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 | 8:21 a.m.

There are horses for courses, and the World Invitational Grand Prix international show horse event believes it may have found a course worth returning to at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"Considering it was the first time, we are very pleased," event spokeswoman Chris Stafford said after a field of world-class riders and horses had finished clearing the barriers -- and knocking a few over -- during the two-day competition that concluded Saturday.

"Even people who are not into show jumping or were seeing it for the first time seemed to be aware of it."

Equus Entertainment in Sports, which organized and produced the event, has confirmed the World Invitational will return to Las Vegas next year although dates have not been set.

"The feedback has been extraordinarily positive, and we are extremely pleased," Equus Chairman and Chief Executive David Shriner said. "We look at this as a long-term plan, and we have to build an audience."

Organizers described the crowd as small but enthusiastic. A Thomas & Mack spokesman said the two-day attendance was 3,958.

"It was a really good event," said Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil, who pocketed $250,000 from the $750,000 purse by finishing first aboard his mount, Baloubet du Rouet. "It is difficult to do a show like this for the first time."

Shriner said he is confident the crowds will be bigger for next year's Grand Prix, now that Las Vegas has been exposed to the sport.

"When the people that were here go out and tell their friends how great it was, we are confident the crowds will be here next year," Shriner said. "We hope that the word will spread this is no ordinary horse show. It is an event."

The Grand Prix had a distinct international feel befitting its name. Great Britain's Nick Skelton, Germany's Meredith Beerbuam, Britain's Michael Whitaker, Ireland's Jessica Kurten and Germany's Lars Nieberg followed Pessoa, who won the equestrian gold medal in the Athens Olympics, in the final standings.