This year’s Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing will witness a twenty seven year old champion Oliver Townend who belongs to Great Britain make his way to Kentucky to add the title to his kitty and win the prize money. In order to win the title of Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing, any eventing athlete needs to be victorious in the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials and in the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and that too in successive manner. Out of the three events, Oliver Townend has proved his worth in the first two events and is left with just one hurdle before he wins the title.  The Grand Slam of Eventing is a Rolex sponsored event which incorporates CCI**** competitions from the domain of eventing.

The priced title of the Rolex Grand Slam has been won only once in the history of the event by Pippa Funnel from Great Britain in the year 2003. Officially the prize money for the Rolex Four Star Championship is about $250,000 however, the person who will be winning over the title to become the second in history after the victory of 2003, will be getting the prize money of $350,000.

Apparently, Oliver Townend would not be seen riding any of his horses that have been with him for a long time namely- Carousel Quest, Burghley mount or Flint Curtis.  The rider will be seen on the back of Ashdale Cruise Master, a horse which has been with him for only a brief period of two months. This grey coloured ride- Ashdale Cruise Master has played a companion to his former owner Emily Grunth to win the Burghly four-star twice. However, this information has come as a surprise to many of his fans.

Oliver Townend got his love for eventing from his parents. With his father being an eventing player and his mother having proved her worth as a side saddle at the county level, it was but inevitable that the young Oliver too fall for this exciting sport. He started riding while he was barely 7 years old on his pony called Cool Mule and he had his first brush with success at the age of 13 when he represented Britain in an eventing team during the European Championship. Oliver Townend maintained his success and only kept getting better with time. He moved upward in the ranks and for a period of three years worked as a jockey for Kenneth Clawson, a British Team Trainer following which the champion never looked back.

In the year 2009, Oliver Townend won the CCI**** at Badminton and also won Burghley CCI**** while riding Carousel Quest.  This earned him a name among the league of the top class riders and also bagged him a place in the 2009 HSBC FEI Classics as well as in the Rolex Grand Slam in Kentucky. These victories together with certain others made him a number one event rider in the three-day event.

With the prestigious title of Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing and hefty prize money on stake for champion Oliver Townend, this year it’s going to be one super exciting and fun filled event which has already got fans and media talking about it.

Tags: Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials, Oliver Townend, rolex, Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 11:27 am and is filed under Rolex Culture, Rolex Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.