Samsung Super League Preview Rotterdam

Rotterdam, the Dutch city named after a dam in the river Rotte, plays host to the fourth leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League next Friday.

The largest sea-port in the world and one of the biggest cities in The Netherlands with its population of just under 600,000 people, Rotterdam is a power-house of activity at any time but this weekend horse-power takes precedence over every other kind as the best show jumping teams in the world clash once again in the latest leg of the Samsung series.

The home team will be hoping to climb out of the lower end of the league table with a good result on their own turf this time out.

Lying sixth on the leaderboard coming up to the half-way stage of the series the Dutch are carrying just five points and this leaves them only 0.5 ahead of the Belgians in seventh place and 1.5 ahead of the Irish who are struggling at the bottom of the order.

They have not had a good run of luck in the 2005 series so far, finishing seventh at the opening round in La Baule where Angelique Hoorn suffered elimination in both rounds, joint-fourth in Rome when things went considerably better and then last in St Gallen earlier this month on a day that Albert Zoer will want to forget.

Eric Van der Vleuten (Audi's Jikke), Leon Thijssen (Nairobi), Leopold Van Asten (VDL Groep Fleche Rouge), Gerco Schroder (Eurocommerce Monaco) and Jeroen Dubbeldam (BMC Nassau) will be hoping that their luck will change for the better on this occasion but last season they were leading the Samsung Super League rankings at the halfway stage having won in both Rome and Lucerne and they have a lot of work to do if they want to leave the danger-zone at the bottom of the league table behind them.

Jos Lansink makes a welcome return to the Belgian squad this week now that he has resolved his issues over the wearing of the Zangersheide Stud jacket as a member of his national team and he will be joined in Rotterdam by Ludo Philippaerts, Jean Claude Vangeenberghe, Dirk Demeersman and Marc Van Djick. The Belgians need to boost their performance if they are to pull away from the Irish at the end of the league table and Lansink could just provide the extra energy they need to do just that.

The Irish are slowly improving however and Jessica Kurten, one of just four riders to jump double-clear in St Gallen, is called up again along with Harry Marshall, Billy Twomey, Dermott Lennon and Clem McMahon. They are under no illusions about the position they are in and can be expected to give it everything they've got on Friday afternoon.

In a much more comfortable position with 12 points to their credit the Swiss are lying fifth on the league table at present. Equal-second with Germany on their home ground in St Gallen, they have been showing great consistency so far in the series and Steve Guerdat, Fabio Crotta, Markus Fuchs, Niklaus Schurtenberger and Pius Schwizer will be keen to ensure that they don't let their guard down this time out.

With 15 points on the board Germany lies fourth and Christian Ahlmann, Marcus Ehning, Lars Nieberg and Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum will be attempting to improve on that. Rotterdam will provide Meredith with her third outing in the 2005 Samsung Super League series and the Germans will not want a repeat of the strange moments they have experienced in the last two events. In Rome Ludger Beerbaum's Goldfever refused toward the end of the track in the second round and Meredith and her FEI World Cup winning partner Shutterfly were eliminated in round one at St Gallen - in show jumping the unexpected is never far away...

A win for France at the Swiss fixture came as no surprise however with Jean-Maurice Bonneau's side at last beginning to show real form.

Eugenie Angot was the star that day and also stole the show when the French came out on top in Rotterdam last season but she does not line out this week as the French selection includes Florian Angot, Gilles Bertran de Balanda, Bruno Broucqsault, Philippe Leoni and Jean-Marc
Nicolas.

France lies just 2.5 points behind the British who are currently placed second on the series leaderboard with 19.5 points accumulated so far and this week's British contingent is heavily weighted by the Whitaker family whose contribution to British show jumping is nothing short of extraordinary.

John Whitaker, his son Robert and his niece Ellen are all included in Derek Rickett's side along with Will Funnell whose double-clear in St Gallen proved all-important, and Robert Maguire completes the line-up. Right now it would be quite possible for the Whitaker dynasty to make up the entire British team if John's brother Michael, hero of the Samsung Super League leg in Rome and presently competing in Canada, joined forces with John, Robert and Ellen...it's a fairly unique claim to fame no matter how you look at it....

All eyes will be on the Americans however who head the league table with a total of 21 points to date but who field a whole new squad of riders and horses this time out.

The first rotation of US riders that included Beezie Madden, Schuyler Riley, Anne Kursinski, Laura Kraut and Georgina Bloomberg did themselves proud when winning the opening leg in La Baule, placing second in Rome and fourth in St Gallen and their replacements - Nona Garson, Todd Minikus, Callan Solem, Chris Tribble and Aaron Vale - will be under plenty of pressure as Chef d'Equipe George Morris will not want to lose the advantage established by the good work of his first contingent.

They may find some comfort in the fact that American course-designer Linda Allen is returning to Rotterdam again this year but, mostly relatively inexperienced at this level of the sport, they should find Friday's competition one of the most challenging of their careers so far.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE LEADERBOARD (after Round 3 in St Gallen):
1. USA 21
2. Great Britain -19.5
3. France - 17
4. Germany - 15
5. Switzerland - 12
6. The Netherlands- 5
7. Belgium - 4.5
8. Ireland - 3.5

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE - NATIONAL PRIDE, INTERNATIONAL PASSION!

The fourth leg of the 2005 Samsung Super League series takes place in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on Friday 17 June. Show President is Frans Lavooy, Show Director is Jan-Willem Korner, contact korner@planet.nl and Press Officer is Anita Lussenburg - email anita.lussenburg@ingram.nl, tel:             +31104526729       or             +31104528900      , fax +31104531555. Show Organiser's email address is info@chio.nl and WEBSITE is at www.chio.nl.

PLEASE NOTE that PRESS ACCREDITATION for the fifth leg of the Samsung Super League series at HICKSTEAD on Friday July 25th is available now by contacting jeffery.communications@btopenworld.com, tel:             +441643 831011       or fax: +441643 831040 or on the website www.hickstead.co.uk. Accommodation list is also available on website.

SAMSUNG SUPER LEAGUE 2005 CALENDAR OF EVENTS:

ROUND 1 - La Baule (Fra) 5-8 May; ROUND 2 - Rome (Ita) 26-29 May; ROUND 3 - St Gallen (Sui) 02-05 June; ROUND 4 - Rotterdam (Ned) 16-19 June; ROUND 5 - Hickstead (GBR) 28-31 July; ROUND 6 - Dublin (Irl) 03-07 August; ROUND 7 - Aachen (Ger) 23-28 August; ROUND 8 and FINAL - Barcelona (Esp) 15-18 September.

You can access all the latest Samsung Super League news and information on website www.samsungsuperleague.com and don't forget that BIOGRAPHIES on all riders competing in the series are available at http://bios.horsesport.org.

Want to know more? You can check the full RULES for the Samsung Super League series on the FEI website, www.horsesport.org - section jumping/rules.

The Samsung Super league consists of the eight most prestigious horse shows at which the world's eight best national teams compare their merit. The Super League is connected to the Samsung Nations Cup series through a promotion/relegation system at the end of each season.

Samsung Electronics, one of the world's largest electronics companies, is committed to supporting international sporting events thereby returning corporate profits to the public and working towards a more harmonious and equitable society.