Equestrianism: Top riders join Team Challenge to boost trials

Mike Tucker, the director of the Windsor International Horse Trials, has come up with a bright new idea that should raise the profile of the event due to be held from 27 to 30 May next year.

The new Team Challenge will be of particular interest mainly because Tucker, a former competitor and well known commentator on the sport, has persuaded four of the world's leading riders to be team captains.

This promises to be a seriously competitive class with William Fox-Pitt (the captain of the Great Britain team) taking on Bettina Hoy (Rest of Europe), the Olympic champion, David O'Connor (Americas), and the triple Olympic gold medallist, Andrew Hoy (Australasia).

Thanks to their involvement in the Team Challenge, which is being staged on the Saturday and Sunday, the captains may bring some other horses to ride in the three-day event.

The revamped Windsor fixture has already reached 80 per cent of its £140,000 sponsorship budget, with a new title sponsor ready to be announced next month.

"The support we have attracted so far gives us tremendous optimism," Tucker said.

Jonathan Warr, the course designer since 1994, is making every conceivable effort to eliminate the difficult ground conditions that have often beset Windsor in previous years.

"The track has been pegged out, mown, rolled, spiked and slit," Warr said. Local riders will be encouraged to keep off the track and, if the weather is particularly wet before the event, the park could be closed to them.

Tucker promises "a fantastic backdrop" for the new site which is being developed in Windsor Great Park, with two arenas and a Formula One-type pits area for the Team Challenge.

Warr intends to give the event its own unique flavour with cross-country fences that "reflect the park and its history", including its standing as a site of special scientific interest.