CSIO Rome is Ready to Write a New Chapter in History
The 92nd edition of what is arguably the best-loved horse show in the world is just around the corner, and anticipation is already at an all-time high. From 21 to 25 May 2025, CSIO Rome at Piazza di Siena will welcome the top athletes and horses from the sport of showjumping to the iconic oval in the heart of the Villa Borghese public park where history has been written, and re-written, so many times.
And the highlight of the week will be the Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday 25 May which will be the first event in Europe, after Wellington in March, of the second season of the Rolex Series that was officially launched at Piazza di Siena last year, bringing together seven of the most prestigious equestrian fixtures in the world.
18 nations
This year stars from 18 nations, including six of the top 10 riders in the current world rankings, will battle it out for the honours, and America’s Karl Cook will attempt to retain the coveted Rolex Grand Prix title that he won 12 months ago. He returns with the super 13-year-old mare Caracole de La Roque who carried him to that career-defining success, and if he can do it again with the same horse he will set a record matched only by Germany’s Franke Sloothaak and the brilliant Joli Coeur who posted back-to-back Rome Grand Prix victories in 1995 and 1996.
A total of 10 countries will line out in the other main event of the week, the Intesa Sanpaolo Nations Cup, in which Cook will fly the US flag alongside Lillie Keenan and two legends of the sport, McLain Ward and Laura Kraut. Ward, currently world number eight, is a six-time Olympian, twice a team gold medallist and winner of the Rome Grand Prix in 2010 and 2016 with his great mares Sapphire and HH Azur, and Kraut also has Olympic gold in her trophy cabinet. However it is 16 years since America last won the Nations Cup of Rome.
Powerful Opposition
Otto Becker’s German team will return as defending Nations Cup champions with Katrin Eckermann, Janne-Friederike Meyer-Zimmermann, Jörne Sprehe and Mario Stevens hoping to bring their country’s tally of wins at Piazza di Siena to 12, but there is plenty of powerful opposition.
The Swiss side includes world number five and reigning European champion Steve Guerdat along with Martin Fuchs who is ranked sixth and is on continuously formidable form. Lining out for Great Britain are two of the team gold medallists from the incredible Olympic Games in Paris last summer - Ben Maher who is currently world number two and Scott Brash who showed nerves of steel to clinch it for his country on that very memorable day.
Also fielding teams will be Argentina, Brazil, France, The Netherlands, the UAE and of course the hosts from Italy. But there is bound to be an extra edge of competitiveness between the British and Americans when the action begins. Maher and Brash will be backed up by Robert Murphy and Ellen Whitaker, but Ward, Kraut and Cook were all in the US side that had to settle for silver in Versailles, and revenge will be ever so sweet if they can reverse those placings in Rome in two weeks’ time.
Who will be at the CSIO in Rome?
The riders competing in the Roman kermis are among the most renowned in the international showjumping circuit. As many as six riders in the top ten will be competing in the Villa Borghese arena.
