WHAT
The first European leg and sixth qualifier of the 2004 FEI Eventing World Cup will take place over the weekend (15 -16 May) at Chatsworth (GBR). Thirty-nine riders and 44 horses representing Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia and the USA will converge in Derbyshire to take part in the SsangYong International Horse Trials. The competition will act as an Olympic selection trial for some nations and will be televised on Sky Sports Extra on 3 June (19h 21h and 0h -2h) and on 4 June (14h 16h).
SsangYong, Chatsworth's new title sponsor, will use the opportunity to launch the latest addition to their 4x4 model range, the new Rexton 270 Xdi. Additional attractions include over 80 quality trade stands, children's entertainment, Pony Club mounted games and terrier-racing.
WHO
An all-star line-up is headed by two recent winners of major competitions:
Britain's William Fox-Pitt, who won his first CCI 4-star Badminton title during the first weekend of May. He has entered last year's Chatsworth winner Stunning, veteran CIC specialist, now 18, who was unbeaten in all but one of his 2003 starts;
Kimberley Severson of the USA, first at CCI 4s Lexington last month and currently number one on the FEI World Eventing Rankings, has entered the 12-year old gelding He's Got Rhythm.
Great Britain's potential Olympic riders include Pippa Funnell, the first rider in history to take home the USD 250,000 Rolex Grand Slam of Eventing when in 2003 she won in succession the three four-star CCI events (Kentucky, Badminton and Burghley). She brings Primmore's Pride, winner of Kentucky and Burghley last year, and her European bronze medallist Walk On Star. She is joined by her team mates Leslie Law with Shear L'Eau and Mary King on King Solomon lll.
The 1996 Olympic Champions, Blyth Tait (NZL) and Ready Teddy, who triumphed at Chatsworth in 2002, will be having their first international outing of the season in preparation for Athens. Also for New Zealand, Andrew Nicholson, recently runner-up at Badminton, rides his team prospect Fenicio, who was 2nd in the 2003 FEI Eventing World Cup Final.
Andrew and Bettina Hoy, representing Australia and Germany, will be bringing their possible Olympic rides, Master Monarch and Ringwood Cockatoo respectively, while other noteworthy entries include Greece's Heidi Antikatzides, Great Britain's Zara Phillips and Pip Peters of Ireland, third at Chatsworth last year.
WHEN
Dressage for the World Cup qualifier will begin on Saturday 15 May at 10h00. Cross-Country will start at 11h00 on Sunday in the magnificent park owned by the Devonshire family. The competition will end with the Jumping test run in reverse order of merit.
The full entries and timetable may be found at www.bdwp.co.uk/cha.
For further information, please visit http://www.chatsworth.org/IndexPages/events%20index.htm
After six qualifiers, Darren Chiacca (USA) firmly leads the 2004 FEI Eventing World Cup standings with 123 points. He is followed by Matthew Grayling (NZL) with 118 points and Phillip Dutton (AUS) with 110 points. Chatsworth will be the sixth event of the series and is guaranteed to lift the winning rider into at least equal fifth position. The point system is weighed so that if a rider wins a leg, they will almost certainly qualify for the Final vying for the anticipated EUR 80,000 prize-money.
The FEI Eventing World Cup complete standings can be consulted on
http://www.horsesport.org/fei/pdfs/consult/02_03/C_04_st_WC.pdf
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The FEI Eventing World Cup is the sport's first linked series consisting of 17 qualifiers culminating in a yearly Final. It is organised at the highest level (three-star) of the short Eventing format which is the new standard for Championships and the Olympic Games. The series is designed in manner to encourage the participation of the world's best riders and horses and thus promote such emblematic values of Eventing, as the constant quest for harmony between physical skills and mental balance, contact with nature, precision, stamina, agility and insightful training. The FEI Eventing World Cup is a showcase of a sport resolutely turning to the future.