Saugerties, NY – HITS, Inc. is excited to announce that they will offer a $1 Million USGPL Grand Prix at the HITS Saugerties Summer Show Series on Sunday, September 12, 2010. The grand prix will be the culmination of qualifying opportunities in grand prix events at all of the 2010 HITS horse shows, including Thermal, Ocala, Arizona, Culpeper, and Saugerties.
“This is something we’ve been looking to do for some time now and the opportunity has finally presented itself,” said Tom Struzzieri, President and CEO of HITS. “We see this as a great opportunity for our customers and the sport. It’s also a chance for HITS to demonstrate our continued commitment to host a class of unprecedented significance and importance, both nationally and internationally.”
Riders will qualify for this historic event by showing in a pre-determined number of HITS Grand Prix events throughout the year. All HITS Grand Prix classes will be named qualifiers, allowing riders to show at any HITS event throughout the qualifying period, which will be from January through September. Once they compete in the designated number of Grand Prix classes to qualify, their money won on their leading horse will place them in the rankings for the event. The 40 top riders based on money won will be eligible for the class.
Management will also have five invites to extend at their discretion to riders not already qualified. In addition, a Wild Card class will be held in Saugerties the same week of the $1,000,000 class and the winner of that event will also earn a spot in the order.
Riders will be tracked based on their entering and competing in HITS Grand Prix events. Rankings through prize money won will become activated once the rider has competed in the designated number of Grand Prix events.
“We are in the process of finalizing all the finer details now and plan to have a full description of the League to send out to all High Performance riders outlining all the specifics very soon,” added Struzzieri.
As part of the program, Grand Prix riders will be contacted every week during the qualifying period to be informed of their status both for number of Grand Prix classes needed to initially make the qualified roster of riders and money tracking for their position within the rankings.
Qualifying grand prix events will begin this winter with three HITS horse show circuits. The 2010 HITS Desert Circuit runs from January 26 to March 14, while the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit will be on January 19 to March 21, and the HITS Arizona Winter Circuit will be held February 3 to March 14.
More details on the thrilling addition of a $1 Million USGPL Grand Prix to next year’s show schedule at HITS Saugerties will be released soon.
To keep on track with the updates or to request a copy of the winter circuit prize lists, please visit www.HitsShows.com
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