A total of 15 riders from 10 nations will compete at the 25th anniversary final of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage series at 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands later this month.
The 2008/2009 series champion, Steffen Peters of the USA, will not be defending his title but two spots still remain open for riders from the North American league which has just one last qualifier remaining.
The Western European League line-up is already decided following last weekend's final qualifying leg in Gothenburg, Sweden where Adelinde Cornelissen came out on top. The Dutch rider will be joined by her gold-medal-winning Alltech FEI European Championship team-mates Edward Gal and Imke Schellekens-Bartels in the battle for the 2009/2010 title. Germany will also be three-handed with Isabell Werth, Matthias Alexander Rath and Carola Koppelman in action while Sweden's Patrik Kittel secured his place with an impressive second-place finish last Saturday.
Flying the flag for the Central European League will be 28 year old Michal Rapcewicz from Poland while 39 year old Australian, Brett Parbery, has qualified from the Pacific League and Brazil's Luiza Tavares de Almeida will represent the South American/Asian region. Steffen Peters' absence means that there are three further places on offer instead of just two, and these have been allocated to Belgium's Jeroen Devroe, Hungary's Acs Robert and Denmark's Nathalie Zu Sayn Wittgenstein, while the two reserves are Sweden's Tinne Vilhelmson Silfven and Poland's Katarzyna Milczarek.
The sensation of the season, and hot favourite to take the 2009/2010 FEI World Cup™ Dressage title is, of course, the spectacular black stallion Moorlands Totilas ridden by Edward Gal who took last summer's Alltech FEI European Dressage Championships by storm and who has continued his record-breaking form throughout the indoor season.
FEI WORLD CUP™ DRESSAGE FINAL – 's-Hertogenbosch (NED), 25-27 March
FEI World Cup™ Dressage, the only worldwide series in this discipline, has entered its 25th season. The series, created in 1985, comprises four leagues: Western European, Central European, North American (including Canada) and Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Asia). Each FEI World Cup™ Dressage qualifier consists of a Grand Prix test, which in turn is a qualification for the Freestyle to music competition, where league points are accumulated towards places in the Final. Judged on both technical and artistic merit, the FEI World Cup™ Dressage combines art, sport and partnership between horse and rider at the highest level and consistently proves a winning formula with audiences all over the world.
Technical Note: The FEI World Cup Dressage™ Champion does not earn points in his/her starts but is automatically qualified to the next Final with two FEI World Cup™ Dressage qualifiers completed. Riders not belonging to the Western European League (WEL) or Central European League (CEL) cannot earn points in the WEL unless they have declared to compete in the WEL 2009/2010. These riders may however transfer the results from a maximum of three (3) WEL qualifiers to their own League. Points earned by CEL riders will be transferred to the CEL standings.