British team manager Derek Ricketts is going all out to win the Nations Cup at this year's Golden Jubilee Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead tomorrow.

It will be Ricketts' first foray into team management on home ground, although he was a member of the world championship winning team in 1978 and a European team gold medallist in 1979, then riding the great Hydrophane Coldstream.

He said: "No way am I going to use the Hickstead Nations Cup as a trial or try-out for the world championships. We will pick the best riders and horses on merit and on current form and go all out to win.

"I want to hear the national anthem and see the Union Flag raised over the showground."

Ricketts will not be the only one looking for great results. Badminton winner Pippa Funnell will be campaigning The Tourmaline Rose for her fourth victory in the fifth running of the The Eventing Grand Prix. It is widely expected that Michael Whitaker, who has run Funnell a close second for the last two years, will also be competing.

This year's schedule shows some changes. The two single-sex classes, the King George V Gold Cup and the Hasseroeder Queen Elizabeth II Cup, will be in the International Arena on Saturday. The Nations Cup will be tomorrow, the Eventing Grand Prix on Friday and the British Speed Grand Prix on Sunday together with the British Grand Prix.

The new look British Grand Prix breaks entirely new ground as the only round of the Gold-Zack Riders Tour being held outside Germany. Hickstead will be the fifth round of the Tour, for which riders in the top 30 of the world ranking list and the leading ten in the 2001 Riders Tour are automatically eligible for the qualifying round.

British riders qualified to compete for the duration of the Royal International Horse Show and overseas Nations Cup team members competing at the show will also be eligible to jump in the qualifying class on Friday. The best 30 riders in this qualifier go forward to the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Prize money for the ten final placings - to be announced at Munich in November - totals more than £417,000 and this year's winner will claim an impressive £158,000.

Swede Jens Fredericson is expected back to defend his title in Saturday's Hasseroeder Speed Derby and it could be a Fredericson invasion as his eventing brother Peder and his wife Lisa may also make the trip.

The 41st Hickstead show, with nearly £100,000 up for grabs in prize money, starts today with the Refco International Stakes. Six arenas will be in use over the main four days until Sunday.