2020 will see several changes for one of the sport’s biggest and most traditional events, Badminton Horse Trials
The event, which was first held in 1949 as the brainchild of the 10th Duke of Beaufort so that that British riders could train for international events, has grown to become one of the top 10 sporting events in the UK in recent years in terms of spectator attendance with the car parks, trade stands, arena and cross country courses fitting into an area of approximately 200 hectares (500 acres) of Badminton Park and riders from around the world vying to win the ‘Holy Grail’ of eventing
The event has been unusually well supported by long standing sponsorship arrangements in the past; in 1961, Messrs. Whitbread took on the sponsorship and this continued until 1991, one of the longest sponsorships for any sport. This was almost repeated by the 28 year long arrangement with Mitsubishi Motors who took over the sponsorship in 1992, initially for three years. In 2016 the event and Mitsubishi Motors celebrated their partnership of 25 years, which has just drawn to a close in 2019. As yet, it is unsure who will take up the sponsorship of the event, which now enters a new era with a new Event Director and Commercial Director at the helm
Previous Event Directors of Badminton have been very much ‘men of the sport’ with Lt. Colonel Trevor Horn (1949-56), Lt. Colonel Gordon Cox Cox (1957-64), Lt. Colonel Frank Weldon (1965-88) and more recently, Mr. Hugh Thomas, who ran the event from 1989-2019, but a lady Event Director is now taking over and a new position created to manage the commercial aspects of this large business enterprise, which it has indeed become
Following Hugh Thomas’s retirement from the helm this year, the long-term Assistant Director Jane Tuckwell will now step up to Event Director, supported by Andrew Tucker, who will take up the new full-time position of Commercial Director. The experienced office and box office team will continue unchanged, as will the Site Management squad.
A female Event Director is not unusual now, with three of the six CCI5* events already having had a female Event Director for many years – Elizabeth Inman (Burghley), Belinda Lindh (Australian International 3 Day Event) and Julia Otto (Luhmuhlen), and Jane now makes it four
Having worked at Badminton for most of her life, Jane has vast experience and knows all the stakeholders in the Horse Trials very well indeed, especially the hundreds of volunteers without whom it would be impossible to stage the event. Andrew has been assisting Badminton in a consultancy role for nearly 15 years, principally working with commercial supporters, alongside his work for the Hurlingham Polo Association and the charity Sentebale, among other clients. He of course has also been part of the Horse Trials from a very young age, with both his parents Mike and Angela riding successfully at the event and then commentating and judging respectively.
While the focus is very much on the horses and riders during the big event, no doubt the focus of the new management right now is on securing a new sponsor for an event that is rich in tradition but also part of a brand new digital era. It will be fascinating to see where it goes from here ….
