A Statement from Equestrian Australia

A mistake we should have caught - and put right sooner

The National Sports Tribunal recently found that the wrong scoring method was used to determine the Australian Grand Prix Champion at the 2024 Australian Dressage Championships. The Tribunal determined that Estupendo and rider David McKinnon, owned by Viv Lipshut, should have been awarded the title.

Simply put, we are sorry. We are sorry for the technical error and for the impact that it had on recognising Viv, Estupendo and David as the 2024 Australian Grand Prix Champions.

The technical error. The rule determining the 2024 Australian Grand Prix Champion was in place, but the method used at the Championships did not follow it. The National Sports Tribunal has made a clear finding about which of the published documents governed the result, and we accept that finding without qualification.

The impact on Viv, Estupendo and David. Getting a rule wrong is one thing; what that error meant for those directly affected is another. Viv believed the result was incorrect from the moment it was announced. She raised her concerns through the appropriate channels but was unsuccessful. It then took close to two years - and ultimately a formal hearing - for the correct outcome to be recognised.

This required considerable time, cost and effort from Viv and David and extended well beyond the impact of the original scoring error. We acknowledge the effect this process had on them and that the matter should have been resolved sooner.

We are also mindful of Mary Hanna and Ivanhoe I, who competed at the Championships in good faith and were awarded the title in good faith. They found themselves at the centre of a situation that was never of their making.

Correcting the official result

Following the Tribunal’s determination, the naming of the official winner was briefly delayed by Equestrian Australia out of respect for the event’s organising bodies, Dressage NSW and Equestrian NSW. This allowed them the appropriate time and privilege to formally announce the rightful winner and to notify Ms Hanna of the change to the event’s outcome.

Following this announcement, Equestrian Australia is pleased to fully support the corrected outcome and to recognise Estupendo, David McKinnon and owner Viv Lipshut as the rightful recipients of the Australian Grand Prix Champion title.

During this period, the Equestrian Australia Board also spent many hours carefully reviewing what had occurred and strengthening the policies and processes required to prevent a similar situation from happening again.

What happened

Dressage results are ordinarily published as percentage scores, and that was the basis on which the rule for the Australian Grand Prix Champion was written and published before entries opened.

After entries closed, and in the lead-up to the event, the method for determining this specific title was changed to a points-based system. That change was agreed between the Dressage NSW event team and the Equestrian Australia Dressage Committee and was reflected in an updated event program. However, it was not clearly communicated as a change to riders and owners, several of whom - including Viv - had already entered based on the original published rule.

It is important to explain where responsibility for a decision such as this would ordinarily sit. The state body conducting an event is responsible for its delivery, including day-to-day field-of-play decisions. In this case, that was Dressage NSW, and Equestrian Australia would not ordinarily intervene in those decisions.

However, this was not a field-of-play judgment made by an official during competition. It was a change to the method used to determine a national title, made in the lead-up to the event and not adequately communicated. This was a governance matter. Once it became clear that the concern was not being resolved through the usual channels, Equestrian Australia should have intervened sooner. We take responsibility for not doing so.

We also acknowledge that decisions made by the Board and leadership at the time contributed to how the matter was handled and how long it took to resolve. Better oversight of rule changes before a national championship, together with a clearer and more timely process through which owners could raise concerns, would likely have identified the issue before it caused such significant difficulty for Viv and David.

Where we go from here

This matter has helped drive significant change within Equestrian Australia over the past year. We have a new Board and a new CEO, and under that leadership we are overhauling how national rules are established, reviewed, approved and communicated, alongside broader improvements to the organisation’s policies and processes.

Our objective is to ensure that a change of this nature cannot again be made close to an event - or after entries have closed - without appropriate scrutiny, approval and direct communication to affected riders and owners.

This is not simply a promise to try harder. Considerable work has already been undertaken to strengthen our policies, oversight and accountability, and the Board remains committed to ensuring the lessons from this matter lead to lasting change.

We are grateful to David for his understanding and to Mary for the grace she has shown throughout. We particularly thank Viv for the considerable time and effort she has devoted to pursuing this matter, and for the respectful and constructive way in which she has engaged throughout the process.

To Viv and David, we offer our sincere apology. The correct result has now been recognised, and we will celebrate the win at the upcoming Equestrian NSW Awards function in August and are committed to ensuring that the lessons arising from this matter lead to meaningful and lasting improvement that creates certainty for owners and riders competing in our sport.