BARBURY is the perfect venue to give the new Event Rider Masters series its big television launch, according to the competition’s chief executive Chris Stone.

The series is new for 2016, bringing together six of the country’s top CIC*** events with record prize money and the crowning of an overall champion at the end of the summer.

Frenchman Astier Nicolas leads after the opening two rounds at Chatsworth House in May and Bramham Park earlier this month, with the series now heading to the Barbury trials next weekend.

The Wiltshire competition will be the first to be broadcast on TV. Live streaming has been available via eventridermasters.tv throughout the series but Barbury will also be shown in a highlights package on Sky Sports and Horse and County TV.

“We have had two trial runs where we were able to try a number of different things that we are able to pull together at Barbury,” said Stone.

“Barbury has fantastic topography for what we are trying to do because it runs in a natural bowl, which makes it easier than other places to set up and manage TV cameras.

“Nigel Bunter (Barbury estate owner) has been so easy to work with that it has been a natural place to go because he has been so helpful in giving us all the access and support we need to make it happen.

“Some of our other events are at national monuments, so the people at Blenheim Palace are lovely but it’s a world heritage site and there are limits to what we can do, whereas Nigel at Barbury is happy to help us do whatever we need to do.

“Barbury is genuinely easy to get to and get in and out, and the visibility because of the way the land works, you can see what’s happening and that’s fantastic.

“It’s also a really welcoming atmosphere – Nigel and his team put on a massive effort to put on a good show.”

The new series is intended to bring eventing to a wider audience, providing a more exciting experience for both those at the course and TV audiences and Stones is delighted at how it is shaping up.

“To use a cricket analogy, we have not gone quite as far as a Twenty20 but we are certainly in a one-day area. It’s easy to follow and you get all the action in a slightly condensed period of time,” added Stone.

“There is also a lot of money for these riders. For an equivalent competition that is not an ERM series, we have multiplied the prize money available by a factor of 10.

“So usually they have a prize pot of £5,000 and we have given them a prize pot of £50,000 per class and another £50,000 as the series prize.

“The riders have been really supportive. They are giving us lots of time to be supportive with our commercial sponsors and partners and they are willing to try the different things we are doing.”