Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.
Las Vegas Events' bid to lure the National Horse Show to the Thomas & Mack Center next fall has failed, but show officials are still talking with local planners about staging the show there next year.
"We're still talking," Alan Balch, president of the National Horse Show Association, said Monday. "That's about all I'm going to say about it."
The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., reported Sunday that the chairman of the show said Las Vegas is out as a site this year and that the event would be staged instead in Wellington, Fla.
Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, said it would be logistically difficult to stage the show in Las Vegas this year, but negotiations are continuing for the 2003 event.
"We think we have a good concept," Christenson said. "We think we could bring in about 400 more horses (from 200 to 600) if we have the show here and we have the ability to improve the entertainment aspect of the show."
The event, conducted over five days, would draw about 10,000 competitors and spectators to the city.
The National Horse Show, a series of competitive riding events that has been staged since 1883, has been at New York's Madison Square Garden for years. But because of contractual obligations to two professional sports teams, arena officials were unwilling to negotiate a multiyear deal, choosing instead to work with the horse show on a year-to-year basis.
Horse show organizers considered their options, including a proposal to move the event to Las Vegas.
Christenson said Las Vegas Events had "a concept in general" about how the show could be moved from New York to Las Vegas.
Local officials hoped the event could be presented at the Thomas & Mack Center around the last weekend in October. That time frame would be ideal, officials said, because the arena would be configured to accommodate a Professional Bull Riders event and the length of the competition would not interfere with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas basketball season.
But National Horse Show organizers were leery about scheduling in Las Vegas from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3 because the Washington D.C. International, another major show, is scheduled to end Oct. 27.
Organizers of the Washington show fear that because of the time needed to transport horses from the East Coast to Las Vegas that competitors would skip that show and go to Las Vegas instead. They also said they were concerned about the expense of shipping horses across the country.
National Horse Show chairman Gene Mische told the Star-Ledger that the most likely venue for this year's show would be the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, the home court for Mische's Stadium Jumping organization, which stages a series of shows from January through April.
Exhibitors on the horse circuit say because the series is at the Florida site for so long they don't think it should be the home of the National Horse Show.
Las Vegas will play host to the World Cup Finals, another major equestrian event, in spring 2003. The 2000 World Cup drew about 10,000 people to Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Events first said it was in negotiations for the National Horse Show last month when it announced that it would stage an unrelated event, the Las Vegas Stampede, a series of chuckwagon races.
Chuckwagon racing is a growing Western sport and the Las Vegas Stampede, which organizers say will draw thousands of competitors and spectators, will be conducted Sept. 19-22 at a temporary course to be built on 61 acres west of the Fremont Street Experience and the Plaza hotel-casino.
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