Equestrian: Coyle and Cruising in tandem for Hickstead canter

TREVOR COYLE, who last competed at Hickstead 12 years ago, returns to the Sussex showground as part of a strong Irish team for this week's Royal International Horse Show.

Today Coyle will be reunited with Mary McCann's grey stallion Cruising, who has been at his owner's stud in County Kildare since winning the Aachen Grand Prix in Germany last month. "It's like old friends getting back together," Coyle said of his reunion with the great horse, who will be making his first appearance at Hickstead in the showjumping contests which begin tomorrow.

The meeting opens with today's dressage phase of the Course & Hound Eventing Grand Prix in which Coyle and Michael Whitaker are two of seven showjumping riders who are set to take on 19 eventers - among them last year's victor, Pippa Funnell. The contest will be completed tomorrow over a combined showjumping and cross-country course of 28 fences.

Seven teams will contest Friday's Nations Cup in which the home quartet (the Whitaker brothers, Di Lampard and Nick Skelton) will attempt to end a dismal record in the Samsung series. The last British Nations Cup victory was back in August 1997 - at Bratislava in Slovakia.

The home riders will face formidable opposition from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy and the United States - with most countries sending their best riders in preparation for the European Championships which will be held at Hickstead at the end of next month.

John Whitaker plans to ride his new mount, Virtual Village Flower, in the Nations Cup. This 11-year-old mare proved wonderfully consistent over the tough courses in Aachen, where she made only one error in a total of eight runs. "I pushed her a bit too much," he said, after the lapse at the last fence in the first round of the Nations Cup.

Robert Smith will also be looking towards the European Championships when he rides Senator Al Mare in the British Grand Prix on Thursday. The contest incorporates the last of three International British Team Trials from which the top three partnerships automatically qualify for the European Championship squad of five.

Smith, the joint leader with Michael Whitaker after the first two trials, believes that 12-year-old Al Mare is capable of tackling championship courses and he is eager to prove that point this week. He may, however, rely on the 19-year-old Tees Hanauer (back in action after a colic operation this year) when he defends the King George V Gold Cup on Sunday.

Last year, when he squelched through the mud to win on Mighty Blue, Smith recorded his third victory in this annual classic for men. On Saturday, Di Lampard will be aiming for a third victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, having achieved her second success last year on Abbervail Dream.