Press Release 1
By Kate Green

Andrew Hoy (AUS), the runner-up in the 2005 FEI Eventing World Cup Final, has got off to a flying start in the 2006 season by winning the first Europe-based FEI Eventing World Cup qualifier this year, at Fontainebleau (FRA), (23 – 26 March).

Hoy rose from sixth place after dressage to triumph with the fastest cross-country time (4.4 time penalties) and a foot-perfect double clear on the evergreen British Thoroughbred Master Monarch, who has made an emphatic recovery from an injury sustained at Burghley last year.

Master Monarch, owned by Tom Attwood and Richard Constant, has a consistent record at four-star level, with several placings at Badminton and Burghley - he will be one of Hoy’s best chances of selection for the Australian team at this year’s FEI World Equestrian Games in Aachen.

Hoy was also ninth at Fontainebleau on Yeoman’s Point, an entirely satisfactory result as both horses are bound for four-star runs at Lexington and Badminton. His wife Bettina Hoy (GER) has been competing his 2004 Burghley winner Moonfleet this spring and she finished 15th out of the 51 starters from 11 nations.

“Both my horses produced personal best performances, so I’m delighted. This has set me up brilliantly for the forthcoming three-day events,” said Hoy, who finished second on Mr Pracatan behind his compatriot Clayton Fredericks (AUS) on Ben Along Time in the 2005 FEI World Cup Final. The reigning champions came 13th at Fontainebleau.

Hoy’s immaculate performance denied a home victory to Nicolas Touzaint (FRA) on Hildago d’Ile, the horse he rode in the silver medal French team at the 2005 European Championships.

After cross-country, Touzaint had looked set for a one-two, having led the dressage and cross-country phases on his 2003 European Champion, the 13-year-old Galan de Sauvagere, who is back eventing after a year off, with Hildago d’Ile in second.

But the grey horse knocked his stifle on the cross-country and could not be presented at the final horse inspection. Then he lost his advantage on Hildago d’Ile when he hit the first part of the treble in the final jumping phase and had to settle for second place.

Touzaint’s team mate Arnaud Boiteau (FRA) was third on his Athens Olympic gold medallist horse Expo du Moulin, ahead of Jean-Lou Bigot (FRA) on a new ride, Icare d’Auzay.

It was a wet weekend in France, but riders were appreciative of Fontainebleau’s sandy going and all-weather arenas. Course-designer Pierre Michelet had softened his cross-country course in deference to the early season date but the water complex at fence 17 caused several run-outs. Thirty-eight horses completed the competition.

At this early stage of the season, with 14 qualifiers to go before the final at Malmo, Sweden (21-24 September), Karin Donckers (BEL), who was third in the 2004 FEI Eventing World Cup final and won the 2005 qualifier at Pau, finished fifth at Fontainebleau on Gormley and now has a commanding lead in the rankings on 165 points.

Phillip Dutton (AUS) is second on 130 points, having won and been placed at Tallahassee in Florida earlier this month, and Hoy now moves into third place with 114 points, just ahead of Rodney Powell (GBR), who won the Martinvast CIC-W last year, on 112.

For the full results, rankings and additional information on the FEI Eventing World Cup, please check www.feiworldcup.org.

The FEI World Cup action now moves to California, at Temecula this weekend.

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The FEI Eventing World Cup is the sport’s only linked series. The 2006 season consists of 18 qualifiers held in ten countries worldwide. It will culminate in a Final to be held in Malmö (SWE) from 21 to 24 September. The FEI Eventing World Cup is organised at the highest level of the sport using the format without steeple chase. The series is designed in manner to encourage the participation of the world’s best riders and horses and thus promote such emblematic values of Eventing, as the constant quest for harmony between physical skills and mental balance, contact with nature, precision, stamina, agility and insightful training. The FEI Eventing World Cup is a showcase of a sport resolutely turned to the future.