Saut Hermès au Grand Palais 2016 – 18, 19 and 20 March 2016

Paris, 14 March 2016

The world's leading riders to compete in the seventh Saut Hermès au Grand Palais

From the 18th to the 20th March, twenty of the world's thirty top riders will be competing in the Saut Hermès six CSI5* trials. Just three days before the World Cup Final in Gothenburg, the elite of the international show-jumping circuit have marked this CSI5* on their roadmaps. Topping the bill will be French rider Simon Delestre, the new world number one and Hermès’ partner rider since 2011.

Competing alongside will be 40 riders of 17 different nationalities for whom winning at the Grand Palais has become one of the major aims of the equestrian season. Amongst them are the current world and European champion Jeroen Dubbeldam from the Netherlands, but also the talented who held the world number one ranking for more than 2 years, and the three German riders who have previously won the Grand Prix Hermès: (2010 and 2014), Christian Ahlmann (2011) and (2013). Romain Duguet (CH), Hermès’ partner rider and winner of the 2015 Grand Prix Hermès, will also be there to defend his title.

Parisian audiences will also be supporting six other great French equestrians including Roger-Yves Bost, Patrice Delaveau, Pénélope Leprevost and Kevin Staut, who are all on track to join Simon Delestre in the French Olympic team this summer for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Other great champions present at this year’s event will include the Irish rider Bertram Allen, the German Daniel Deusser, and the Italian Emanuele Gaudiano, who will be competing in Le Saut Hermès for the first time. Edwina Tops-Alexander (AUS) and Luciana Diniz (POR) will be returning this year along with the Spanish rider Pilar Lucrecia Cordon Muro, who, as a partner rider since 2011, will be representing both her country and the House.

For the sixth consecutive year, twenty promising young riders under the age of 25 will receive expert coaching from the CSI5* riders as they compete in the three original Hermès Talents trials created especially for them.

The complete list of participating riders is available at sauthermes.com

International Press Director: Ina Delcourt Agence Blanco Negro Press Contact: Caroline Schwartz - Claire Lépine Laurence Dacoury Tel: +33 (0)1 40 17 48 23 / +33 (0)1 40 17 47 79 Tel. + 33 (0)6 18 41 30 28 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]