The season is far from over for many of the returning Olympic riders as they now prepare for the fourth leg of the HSBC FEI Classics™ to be held at The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (4-7September).

Defending title holder William Fox-Pitt will be attempting to retain the Land Rover Perpetual Challenge trophy he won last year with his Olympic ride Parkmore Ed, in the knowledge that another win would consolidate his lead on the HSBC FEI Classics™ leader-board. Third place at Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials (Ballincoola) and a win at Luhmühlen (Macchiato) mean the Dorset based rider currently has a ten point advantage.  

Second placed American Olympic team rider Phillip Dutton, winner at Lexington in May, will be in a determined mood with Woodburn at Burghley in an attempt to secure vital points to move him up to the top of the HSBC FEI Classics™ leader-board. While a win for the favoured British combination of Lucy Wiegersma and Shaabrak who were second at Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials, could see them move into the lead prior to the French and final event of the HSBC FEI Classics™ in Pau.

As always there will however be much competition at Burghley. Several experienced and previous winners – Stephen Bradley (USA), Pippa Funnell (GB), Andrew Hoy (AUS), Mary King (GB) and Andrew Nicholson (NZL) – as well as plenty of new home-grown and international talent, will also be vying to associate their name with the prestigious venue and series.

After the last fence has been jumped on Sunday at Burghley just one leg of the HSBC FEI Classics™ series remains to determine the division of the sport’s largest prize fund – the top five will share US$333,000 with the series champion awarded US$150,000.  

Editors Note

For more information on the HSBC FEI Classics™ - the leader-board, the calendar, the prize money and all the latest news, visit the FEI website www.fei.org and click on HSBC FEI Classics™. 

The HSBC FEI Classics Final will be held in Pau (FRA) from 22-26 October.

HSBC will contribute US$ 1million to the series over the next three years. This represents the biggest prize pot on offer in the sport of Eventing on an annual basis. At the end of each season, the five riders with the greatest number of points will be awarded PRIZE-MONEY as follows:

1st - US$ 150,000 (Series Champion)
2nd - US$ 75,000
3rd - US$ 50,000
4th - US$ 33,000
5th - US$ 25,000

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HSBC serves 15.6 million customers in the UK and employs more than 40,000 UK staff. HSBC is Britain's most recommended big bank. HSBC Bank plc is a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, and a member of the HSBC Group. HSBC Holdings plc serves over 125 million customers worldwide through some 10,000 offices in 82 countries and territories in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. HSBC is embedding sustainability into its core financial services business. This starts with its own operations. The bank measures its use of energy and water and production of waste and carbon dioxide across its offices around the world. It has also set targets to reduce these.

The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials takes place from 4-7 September 2008. 

For more information about The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials please visit www.burghley-horse.co.uk, for ticket and box office information call 01933 304744. For other information please call the press office on 01458 250 200 or email burghleypress@jbpromotions.co.uk