In late January, the AQHA Executive Committee reviewed a year-to-date comparison of qualifiers to the Ford Youth, the Adequan Select, Bank of America Amateur and FedEx Open world shows. As of December 31, 2010, qualifiers were nearly even when compared to the same period the previous year. At this time, the Executive Committee reaffirmed the qualifying points and made no changes.
However, recognizing that fuel prices likely will continue to rise, the Executive Committee left the door open to consider trimming qualifying points for any of the world shows.
Looking at AAA’s national average for gas prices, the Executive Committee agreed that should gasoline prices reach $4 per gallon and/or diesel prices reach $4.35 per gallon and there are still at least 45 days left in a qualifying period, the following formula will be used this year to reduce qualifying points:
- .5 point needed to qualify will remain
- 1 to 4.5 points needed to qualify will be reduced by .5 point
- 5 to 9.5 points needed to qualify will be reduced by 1 point
- 10 and greater needed to qualify will be reduced by 2 points
Should gas prices rise higher than $4 and/or diesel higher than $4.35, the Executive Committee will again look at the formula to make a determination.
“We want to strike the right balance between helping our members and keeping qualifying points at a certain level,” said AQHA President Johannes Orgeldinger. “It is important that AQHA proactively respond to its members while ensuring the integrity of the world shows remains intact. We will continue to monitor how fuel prices are affecting our exhibitors and do what is necessary to help.”
