Page 47 - The Hunt - Fall 2021

Fair Hill regular Caitlin Silliman.
Boyd Martin says the 5 Star will be a tougher challenge than the Olympics, thanks to a longer cross-country course and higher jumps. “Only a small
group of horses and riders can actually compete at this level,” he says.
5 star level is the top of the sport. “It attracts the best horses and best riders from around the world,” says Boyd Martin, a highly decorated eventer who competed in the Tokyo Olympics. “There are just a few events at this level in the world. The prize money and the difficulty of the course attract the A-listers.”
With its rich tradition in the equestrian community, Fair Hill is an appropriate choice for the second 5 Star in the United States. The site’s history dates to 1925, when William du Pont Jr. began to amass property along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border as a nature preserve to be used for foxhunting and horse racing. “He built Fair Hill
to look like Ascot in England,” says Dr. Timothy Gardner, vice president of the
Fair Hill Foundation.
In 1974, nine years after du Pont’s death, the state of Maryland purchased more than 5,000 acres of the property within its borders. In 1989, the first competition was held—a cross-country event on a course created by noted English designer Michael Tucker. Since then, Fair Hill has been the site of many other contests, on its way to becoming a Mid-Atlantic equestrian mecca. In 2017, the Sport & Entertainment Corporation of Maryland bid to host the 5 Star, and Fair Hill was chosen from
among a group that included potential sites in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. The competition was originally scheduled for 2020, but COVID restrictions pushed it back a year.
Thanks to a public-private partnership that features a $10 million grant from the state, Fair Hill will present a refurbished course designed by former U.K. Olympian
Ian Stark. Gardner expects between 30,000 and 40,000 people to attend the three-day event and projects that “at least a dozen” international riders will compete for a purse that could exceed $300,000. “This will put Cecil County, Md., on the map,” Gardner says. “There will be plenty of fans and competitors here from around the world.”
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