After much deliberation, and budget reviews, BEDE Events are disappointed to confirm the cancellation of Catton Park International due to insufficient entries.
A benchmark of entry numbers for ballot date was set by the team in advanced and unfortunately entries are currently falling a long way short of this mark. Despite much review of budgets and deliberation on what could be done to make the event viable, being a greenfield site, it was deemed that proceeding at this point would be too greater financial risk. With the current, and projected, entry numbers the event would expect to suffer a loss of around £20,000, which would be unsustainable for any business.
The Catton Park venue is a completely greenfield site, meaning that all fences and facilities must be transported to the event and then removed straight after. This adds significant operating costs, in addition to the extra ground preparation required for a multi-event venue such as this, and the ground preparation required for the continuing dry weather.
“This was a very difficult decision to make as we very much wanted to make Catton Park a summer showcase event, with revised layout and new features” says Event Director Stuart Buntine “Like in 2024 the weather is not something we can control, and it is slightly incomprehensible that last year we had to abandon due to extreme wet and this year we are cancelling due to the reduced entry numbers that are being seen across the country due to the continued lack of rain and concern over hard ground.
Like many events we’re grateful to British Eventing for the complimentary use of the Aggravator and Equivator that helps us prepare the ground to the highest standards. These machines will be in use at BCA, which despite lower entries than we had hoped for, will run as planned due to the permanent facilities and different model of operation.
Thank you to those competitors and owners who has chosen to support Catton Park and who had made their entry prior to ballot. This is such an important date for all organisers as it helps us make these financial decisions. It enables us to push the green light and crack on with the extensive event preparations, or it helps us make those difficult decisions to pull an event and mitigate financial disaster, which ultimately helps to safeguard eventing venues for the future.”
Refunds are being processed to enable those competitors who had entered to re-route to different events.
