The facts speak for themselves - 67 competitors from 16 countries including 7 of the top 10 riders on the Longines Rankings, 8 of the world’s best teams, 3 Olympic champions, €600,000 in prize-money, and the most elegant venue.
The list of competitors just sparkles with quality, with world no. 1 Simon Delestre heading up the French contingent, while the 2000 Olympic and reigning World and European champion Jeroen Dubbeldam leads the crack Dutch team.
Reigning Olympic individual gold medallist, Steve Guerdat from Switzerland, is right on top of his game having claimed the World Cup title for the second season in a row just a few short weeks ago, and the home crowd will have plenty to shout about because their top-rated rider, Emanuele Gaudiano who is 19th in the world rankings, has been passed fit to compete after injury.
Like all the other top names, Gaudiano will be chasing down the trophy in Sunday’s Loro Piana Grand Prix City of Rome in which Sweden’s Henrik von Eckermann will be defending the title he won 12 months ago.
But the first big test will be Friday’s Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ presented by Longines in which the home side will do battle with Canada, Germany, Great Britain (2015 winner), France, Sweden, USA, and the most feared nation of all - The Netherlands.
And with a victory already under their belt following last Friday’s Furusiyya leg at La Baule (France), Team Netherlands are clearly in flying form again this season. Jeroen Dubbeldam, Maikel van der Vleuten, Gerco Schroder, Jur Vrieling and Harrie Smolders will be wanting to confirm their places in their national side ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and a strong performance at Piazza di Siena will go a long way towards doing just that.
Horses and riders will enjoy the challenging courses set by Italy’s Uliano Vezzani who will also test their skills in Saturday’s Small Grand Prix Engel & Volkers Palm Beach e Intesa Sanpaolo and the Loro Piana Six-Bar competition. And with the experience and expertise of celebrated Show Director, Eleonora Ottaviani, CSIO Rome Intesa Sanpaolo - Piazza di Siena Master fratelli d’Inzeo 2016 is on course for four fabulous days of top-class show jumping.
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