Andrew Lloyd Webber is to be a guest dressage judge at the inaugural Express Eventing International Cup which is being held in the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff on 30 November. The event, which offers £250,000 prize money - a record in the sport - is a condensed form of three-day-eventing designed to showcase the sport as glamorously as Twenty20 has done for cricket. Mark Todd, New Zealand’s dual olympic champion, is among the 20 contestants which also include Britain’s three olympic riders Mary King, William Fox-Pitt and Tina Cook.

The competition - packed into half-a-day - begins with a 4-minute freestyle to music dressage test in which Lord Lloyd Webber and Arlene Phillips, judge of television’s ’Strictly Come Dancing’, will assess each rider’s interpretation of the music. Lloyd Webber, whose wife Madeleine is a former international event rider, admits he still has a lot to learn about horses but said yesterday “I am delighted to be playing a part in what is a great new sporting event.”

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