Stage set for Casas Novas Winter Edition at La Coruna

This horse show is one of the most popular horse shows in Spain and will be held in the Casas Novas Equestrian Centre from December 12 to 14.

As Casas Novas prepares for the celebration of this prestigious winter competition, more than 95 riders and 160 horses are set to compete over the weekend.

The best riders from both the national and international scene will take part in six events that scheduled and authorised as the CSI five-star rated competitions, of which four of them will count towards rider’s points on the Longines FEI rankings.

Spanish hopes will be pinned on seven riders taking part in the weekend’s competition, including Sergio Alvarez Moya, Eduardo Alvarez Aznar, Manuel Añon and Pilar Cordon, all of whom are regular members of the Spanish team who competed in the FEI Nations Cups this season.

Moya is the current leader of the national ranking and 25th in the world. He will compete with his best horse, Carlo, and they will be out to repeat the magnificent victory achieved in 2012.

Great Britain will be represented by two great riders of the Whitaker dynasty. John Whitaker has won four international Grand Prix events this year, whilst son Robert Whitaker has chipped in with successes at six international competitions in 2014.

The Belgian contingent being represented in Casas Novas will reflect a mix of youth and experience. The twins of Nicola and Olivier Philippaerts, and Constant van Paesschen have won more than 30 international events this season. Joining these three youth Belgian stars will be one of the most experienced riders on the international circuit, Jos Lansink.

Fresh from their exploits in Madrid last month, Colombian Carlos López and Australian Edwina Tops-Alexander will compete in La Coruña with their best horses. Both featured prominently in the sixth leg of the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping 2014/2015 Western European League staged in the Spanish capital, with Lopez taking the honours with Tops-Alexander close behind in second.

Alongside Tops-Alexander, two other female riders who have impressed of late, Jane Richard Philips from Switzerland and Ukraine’s Katharina Offel will also be in competition and be looking to carry their form into this weekend.

Germany’s Marco Kutscher will look to continue with his upturn in form and further build on a run of recent results that have seen him work his way back into a return to the national team in this final stretch of the season.

Several of the riders who return to compete this year have previously won the Grand Prix of La Coruña - France’s Julien Epaillard in 2006, the Netherlands’ Henk van de Pol in 2008 and Moya in 2012, and all will again expect to feature prominently.

All of the competitors will be out to win the feature class of the weekend, the Longines Grand Prix, being staged on Saturday evening. There is € 500,000 in prize money up for grabs, highlighting the fact that the Grand Prix class and the International Show Jumping of La Coruña as a whole is one of the most important events on the international calendar.

Longines, the Swiss watchmaker, is the official timekeeper and official presenter of this winter edition of La Coruña and also for the next five years thanks to an agreement signed recently.

The agreement with Longines allows Casas Novas continue to pursue organisational excellence and progressively improve the quality of competitions, meaning La Coruña will continue to become a stand out event that the best riders in the world will want to attend and compete in over the next few years.