Mary King and William Fox-Pitt will go head-to-head this weekend at the final four-star event of the season - Les Etoiles de Pau - in order to win the HSBC FEI Classics series. The series is based on results from the five four-star events held each year, and the winner takes home a prize of $150,000.

Friendly rivalry

The pair, who are good friends, are close in the title race, with Mary on 38 points and William on 25. H&C believes that William would have to win Pau CCI* four-star and Mary would have to finish outside the top eight to reverse the placings and give William the top prize.

In third spot in the HSBC FEI Classics series is Piggy French, making it a one-two-three for Team GBR in the current standings, but Piggy doesn't compete at Pau so could move down the rankings. 

Bring on Pau

Mary King takes a strong hand of two horses to Pau, Apache Sauce and Imperial Cavalier; while William has three entries, Macchiato, Oslo and Lionheart.

A total of 17 British riders are due to compete in the French CCI four-star, which takes place in the scenic surrounds of the Pyrenees mountains. Other competitors include world champion Michael Jung and former world champion Clayton Fredericks.

Brilliant Boekelo

As the eventing season draws to a close for 2011, last weekend played host to one of the final major events of the season, the CCI three-star at Boekelo.

Mark Todd and NZB Campino led throughout only to drop to third on the final day after incurring nine show jumping penalties. In the end, victory went to Germany's Andreas Dibowski on FRH Butts Avedon, while Camilla Spiers (IRE) took second place on Portersize Just A Jif. Camilla's performance has gone a long way to helping Ireland secure Olympic qualification for 2012. 

Ireland also finished third behind Germany and Australia in the team competition, while Britain finished sixth after a difficult cross-country day. Best of the Brits individully were Laurence Hunt (On Q For Gold) in seventh and John Paul Sheffield (Crown Farm Consort) in eighth. 

For full results from Boekelo, visit here.