Release date: 11/08/2010 |    

The emerald green grass arenas of Stal Tops, home of the Global Champions Tour (GCT) President and Founder Jan Tops, welcome the series he created home this weekend. The world's best riders and horses will descend on the Netherlands hoping to win the Grand Prix of the Netherlands presented by the VDL Groep but there is a full supporting programme in Valkenswaard to keep everyone entertained before and after that class. Horse Festival Valkenswaard will run the second week of their CSI** concurrently and there is also the exciting Derby to watch on Sunday so there will always be some top class jumping for visitors to enjoy. And with general admission and parking completely free, over 30'000 people made the most of the experience in 2009.

This year the show is hoping all of the world's top five will be attending, although Eric Lamaze sadly found out today he cannot compete yet. Lets hope we see him as we did in Chantilly. But Pius Schwizer, Kevin Staut, Marcus Ehning and Rolf Goran Bengsston are confirmed at time of writing. In addition, the three top ranked ladies, Jessica Kurten, Edwina Alexander and Penelope Leprevost are confirmed. And of course, the home fans will be waiting to cheer the return of their winning Nations Cup team from Dublin, especially double clear round hero, Eric Van Der Vleuten.

This is the first year that the GCT is proud to welcome Jaeger Le Coultre to Stal Tops in their role as official timepiece after a successful start to the collaboration between the two companies in Hamburg and Cannes. See the Featured section for more details on Jaeger Le Coultre and the Event section of this week's round for the full show programme.