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The FEI World Cup scoring system, as devised by a Swiss financial and equestrian journalist named Max Amman, who created the World Cup in the first place, is readily understood and comprehended by rocket scientists, idiots savant, and anyone with an ordinary working knowledge of the Quantum Theory in bridging the gap between Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and today’s hotly popular String Theory of the Big Bang.
If you don’t qualify in any of those categories, you’re in luck here, because, as you will recall from the 2005 Official Program, we have broken the Da Vinci Code which included this remarkable scoring system..
So, pay attention here, and you could be the only guy (or gal) in your group who’s got a clue what’s going on around here. From now on this week, when you’d like to know who’s ahead and who’s behind and by how much and how come, just refer to what you are reading here on this pleasant day in Las Vegas.
Points
The first magic word is points. Assume there are 40 starters in Thursday’s speed class, the opening World Cup event. The winner gets 41 points, which is one more than the number of starters, in case you didn’t notice.
The second place rider gets 39 points, two points less than the winner. Each rider thereafter gets one point less, so that the third place rider has 38 points, then 37,36,35 down to the last horse who finishes the course. Simple, yes? Or not.
What was your question? What if there are 45 starters? Well, duh, now the winners gets 46 points, and second place gets 44. Geez, guys (and gals), get with it, here.
Friday’s Grand Prix Format - Finesse, Power and Speed
So, okay, assume there are only 38 starters on Friday night, with two riders having withdrawn after crashing and burning in Thursday’s opener. To keep things fair and balanced (what do you mean, no politics allowed?) the winner of this second trial gets the same 41 points as yesterday’s winner, then it’s the same 39,38.37, etc.
Crunching Numbers
Now add the Thursday and Friday points for each rider. The leader after the second round is the guy (or gal) with the most total points. A typical combined score for the leader at this point would be maybe 76 points, with the second place maybe 72 and third place maybe 70.
Now hold onto your hat. It’s time for the magic of Leopoldo (that’s da Vinci, not Palacio) to convert the point into faults. The leader’s 76 points suddenly become zero faults. We will say that again for emphasis, the leader after the first two rounds, who will be the last to start on Sunday, will start the day with zero faults.
Next comes the trick which has put the World Cup in a class of its own, when it comes to creating final round suspense. Our second place horse has that combined score of 72 points, four points less than the leader, the equivalent of a knockdown or a stop. But, to keep the competition closer, instead of starting 4 faults behind the leader, the difference is arbitrarily cut in half, and the second place horse is now only two faults behind the leader, less than a knockdown, with the rest of the horses down the list, instead of being strung out with little chance of winning, now bunched into a competitive final round, the outcome more in doubt. Suddenly, as many as six or seven riders have a shot at the championship.
That’s the World Cup da Vinci scoring code, now cracked. As our buddy John Travolta says, “Ain’t it cool?” And, as for you guys (and gals) out there, enjoy your superiority over those other poor guys (and gals) who didn’t read John Q’s column today!
John Q.
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