Noel C Duggan is determined next month's indoor international will not suffer at the hands of the International Jumping Riders Club (IJRC), which has threatened to boycott all World Cup shows that fail to provide a prize fund of more than £100,000.
The IJRC has already boycotted the Oslo and Helsinki World Cup qualifiers this month, and Millstreet is officially next on the hit list as its total prize fund of £90,000 does not meet with the IJRC demands. The top 25 riders in the world rankings have agreed not to compete at shows which do not have the minimum level of prize money.
"None of the top 25 are in that number," Duggan said yesterday, "but we'd normally have only half a dozen of the top ones anyway. We've managed without them before and we'll manage without them again.
"Nobody appreciates that we pay out over £40,000 to charter a plane to bring horses over from mainland Europe. We have the funds to put together enough prizemoney to attract the top 25 riders, but why should we when our own federation is hindering us, rather than helping us?"
Duggan is still smarting over the fact that an £18,000 grant earmarked for Millstreet out of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland's Sport Council funding was withheld last year due to incomplete accounts from the Show Jumping Association.
"To this day we haven't got that money and now the federation has turned round and is giving us less than half that for this year's show," Duggan said.
