ShowBiz Feature
to lose so I phoned Elizabeth (Busch Burke) and asked won the bid on, we’ve been told there’s never been
her if Budweiser would like to sponsor the World Cup. any better. It would be hard to do it better, but we
She said she loved the idea and would try to do it, and recognize the need to spread the event around,
she was successful. So we did have a sponsor after all.” so it’s a dilemma. A great many people felt that ev-
Sadly, the triumph of all the accomplishments and ery other year was doing exactly that – spreading it
success might be the very thing that bites the United around. Twenty North and South American Federa-
States in the butt. “Each time we held the World Cup tions wrote letters to the FEI saying that it’s impor-
Finals,” John said, “which was every other year, it re- tant to stay with Las Vegas. It’s difficult for us to be
mained successful and grew. The crowds were huge, objective about it, and I certainly don’t want to have
and that made a lot of other people want to come in any quarrels with the FEI, or with anybody. But I
and participate in hosting it. It got a lot of bidders, do think it would be too bad if something like this
and now we are certainly no longer in the position to would be lost to the sport. There’s nothing like it.”
get it here every two years. In fact right now it is taken While sad to see the possibility of the next World
all the way up until 2015 before we can see it again." Cup Finals here at home so far in the future, Quirk is
“So yes, there is doubt whether Las Vegas World Cup pleased with what he has accomplished. And he says
Finals will continue, because this event is not held as that after all of the careers he has had in his lifetime
part of an existing horse show, it’s something that is this is surely not the most prestigious one, he is the
special. And to have it here only every six years or so, first to admit his passion for show jumping is palpable.
for the county that puts this all together, they would say, All of us who have had the opportunity to attend any
‘you know, that’s a lot of money to be risking just to get of the five World Cup Finals that have been held in Las
an event that far apart.’ We don’t really know right now Vegas can thank John Quirk. If not for he and his visions
where anything is for the future of the Finals here." we would not have had the chance to watch a Meredith
“All we do know is that each of the shows we’ve Michaels-Beerbaum, Albert Zoer, Beat Mandli, Marcus
Ehning, or Rodrigo Pessoa work their magic in person.
With a lucky roll of the Las Vegas dice, we will be
able to see it again, because John is right – there is
nothing like it.
This Page Left to Right: John &
Meredith ; Tish & John Quirk
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