ORGANISERS have announced the cancellation of this year’s Festival of British Eventing at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.

The high-profile event was due to start this Friday with British championship classes at open, intermediate and novice levels.

But it has now been called off due to the inclement weather and becomes the latest major eventing competition to fall by the wayside this season.

One of Gatcombe’s planned highlights this year was to have been a parade of Britain’s Olympic eventing team – which includes Sturminster Newton’s William Fox-Pitt, Mary King, Tina Cook, Zara Phillips and Nicola Wilson – on Sunday afternoon in the main arena in one of The Queen’s State Range Rovers as a send-off just two weeks before London 2012.

Numerous top riders had entered the competition, including the British Olympic quintet, London-bound New Zealanders Andrew Nicholson and Mark Todd, plus Australian Olympic riders Clayton and Lucinda Fred-ericks.

The Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials and Chatsworth event were casualties in May, while numerous lower-key competitions nationwide have also been rained off.